Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 April / corr. Trend K. Ramazanova/ The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandyan, will meet in early May in Strasbourg, Bernard Fassier, the French co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group said to Trend on a telephone from Vienna on 23 April.
The meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign minister may be held within the special meeting of Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe to be held on 7 May. Slovenia will hand over chairmanship to Sweden within the meeting.
It is the first meeting of Azerbaijani foreign minister with new foreign minister of Armenia. The former Armenian ambassador Nalbandyan was appointed foreign minister after the change of government in Armenia as a result of presidential elections in the country. He replaced Vardan Oskanyan.
"The further steps of mediators depends on the meeting of ministers," Fassier said.
It is possible that mediators will visit Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict region and will discuss the ways of settlement of conflict with Azerbaijani and Armenian government, he said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
The French co-chairman discussed various ways of settlement of the conflict with Armenian foreign minister a day ago in Paris, during the Armenian foreign minister's visit to France. The current stage of negotiations on settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed during the meeting.
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