Details added (first version posted on 15:05)
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 9
Trend:
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and French Ambassador to Russia Jean-Maurice Ripert discussed the preparations for the trilateral summit on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in St. Petersburg, read a message posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.
During the talks, Karasin and Ripert discussed the international efforts on resolving the crisis in Ukraine and touched upon the situation in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
France's ambassador was accompanied by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, French Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for Eastern Partnership, Pierre Andrieu.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.