No "breakthrough" or "significant progress" were reached during the talks of the Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenia Serj Sarkisyan held in St. Petersburg on June 4, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said as a result of the meeting of the Presidents of the two countries, which lasted two and a half hours, Mediamax reported. "Despite that today we can not speak about the breakthrough or significant progress, the sides are moving forward and agreed to continue negotiations," said Nalbandyan. He noted that the Presidents charged the foreign ministers to, together with the mediators, continue to work to bring the positions of the sides closer and the new meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov also noted that "there was no breakthrough, but there is movement". He said that the sides approach each other's positions with great understanding. "The most important thing is that the sides have agreed upon the necessity to move forward," said Mammadyarov.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.