Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 28
By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:
The Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov, Sergey Lavrov and Eduard Nalbandyan held a working meeting Apr. 28 in Moscow on the initiative of the Russian side, a diplomatic source told Trend.
During the meeting, the ministers continued discussions on the prospects for the progress of the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement and stressed the need to implement the agreements reached at the summits in Austria’s Vienna and Russia’s St. Petersburg held in April and June 2016, according to the source.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers expressed gratitude to Russia for its efforts in promoting peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Mammadyarov, Lavrov and Nalbandyan agreed to continue contacts on all the issues discussed.
Following the tripartite talks, the foreign ministers met with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and exchanged views on the state of affairs regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement.
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.