Azerbaijan, Baku, May 26 / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /
The U.S. should intensify efforts to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, said Kurt Volker, U.S. ambassador to NATO from July 2008 to May 2009, the managing director of the Center on Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University and a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council of the United States.
"This is an issue on which Russia, the United States and Europe have been working together well for years, and the outlines of a possible settlement have long been on the table," Volker said in an interview with The Washington Post
He said that an Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement could spur travel, trade, investment and economic prosperity in the region.
A ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk group, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, should be convened to renew pressure toward a settlement, Volker believes.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the occupied territories.
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