Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 May / corr Trend S.Agayeva / The Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will hold a meeting in June. The relevant agreement was achieved during the talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries in Strasbourg, within the framework of a meeting of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 6 May, Elmar Mammadyraov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, told journalists on 12 May.
It will come as the first meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with the new Armenian leader Serzh Sarkisian, who was elected to this position in February.
"The meeting with the new Armenian authorities will clarify their readiness for the peaceful settlement of conflict," the minister said.
During the forthcoming meeting, the heads of the conflicting countries are expected to discuss the written proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, given to the Azerbaijan and Armenian foreign ministers by the OSCE Minsk Group in Madrid on 29 November. The content of proposals is not disclosed due to confidentiality of the principles.
So far the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have presented to conflict sides three different proposals, two of which were not accepted by Armenia. In its turn, Baku did not agree upon the mediators'; proposals on the establishment of a confederative state with Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan 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.
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