Possible meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents on agenda of talks
By Sara Rajabova
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers have discussed a possible meeting of the presidents of the two countries in the near future.
Following the briefing in Vienna on April 3, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States of America - met on April 4 with Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian.
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the meeting, OSCE press release reported.
The co-chairs reiterated to the ministers their commitment to working toward a just and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The sides also discussed the possible summit meeting between the Presidents in the near future, and acknowledged the urgency of further progress on the substantive issues.
The co-chairs again emphasized to the ministers the need to take concrete steps to reduce tensions in the region and advance the peace process.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.
Besides, the UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.