Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
Trend:
The Vienna meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the possible holding of the next meeting on reaching consensus on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a very positive indicator, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Malena Mard told reporters in Baku.
A meeting was held in Vienna on May 16 with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Mard said that the EU welcomes holding of such meetings.
The EU is very pleased that such steps are being taken towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mard noted. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also work actively for holding the next meeting of the presidents, she added.
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.