Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia held a working meeting in Moscow on Saturday, the Armenian foreign ministry said.

Elmar Mammadyarov, Eduard Nalbandian and Sergei Lavrov discussed issues pertaining to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh, according to the agreement reached during the talks held by the three countries’ presidents on October 27. No details of the meeting were disclosed.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev voiced hope after the Moscow-brokered talks in Astrakhan that the document on basic conflict settlement principles could be agreed by the OSCE summit due December 1-2 in Astana. According to Medvedev, all three countries’ foreign ministers have been instructed to finalize work on the Madrid principles, which is a peace outline proposed by international mediators.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict for two decades. OSCE-brokered peace talks kicked off after a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a shaky cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces continue to occupy over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the United States have been largely fruitless so far.