Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents are due to hold another round of talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with the Russian leader’s mediation in June, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.

Mammadyarov said the co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group are expected to visit the region in early June, after which the foreign ministers of the three countries will hold talks in Moscow that will be followed by a meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan.

Mammadyarov said proposals have been made on a venue for the presidents’ meeting, but it has yet to be specified.

The upcoming meeting will be the ninth one among the three countries’ leaders.

President Dmitry Medvedev last hosted Aliyev and Sargsyan in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi in early March. At the end of the meeting the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents issued a joint statement pledging to "resolve all controversial issues by peaceful means". They agreed to investigate skirmishes along the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops with the aid of the OSCE mediators and to swiftly finalize the exchange of prisoners of war.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war that ended with the signing of a fragile cease-fire in 1994. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since then. Peace talks brokered by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.