Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend corr S.Agayeva / Nepal will support Azerbaijan during the upcoming discussions over 'lingering conflicts' in the territory of GUAM (Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) due at the sixty-second session of the UN General Assembly. Sahana Pradhan, Nepal's foreign Minister, commented on Katmandu's official position in a meeting with Tamerlan Garayev, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Nepal, on 14 September.
An issue on lingering conflicts in the territory of GUAM has been included in the agenda of the sixty-second session of the UN General Assembly in New York late this September. On 3 October, Elmar Mammadyarov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, will deliver a report on lingering conflicts to the session.
Garayev informed Trend by telephone from Katmandu that during the meeting, Nepal's Foreign Minister confirmed his country's support of Azerbaijan's position on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the territory integrity of Azerbaijan. He condemned the Armenian aggression especially regarding its ethnic cleansing in the region and the destabilization of the situation in the South Caucasus region.
The issue on lingering conflicts in the territory of GUAM will be discussed at the General Assembly at Azerbaijan's initiative. The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijani land 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.