Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 /Trend, R.Darakhshan /
Azerbaijan and the U.S. are committed to continuing to work through the OSCE Minsk Group to try to resolve the longstanding conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday in Washington D.C. before the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
"I just want to underscore the strategic importance of the relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan and the range of issues that we are working on together - bilateral issues, regional issues, even global issues," Clinton said, U.S. State Department's official website reported.
According to her, Azerbaijan and the U.S. are committed to broadening and deepening their relationship.
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 and the surrounding regions.