Azernews.Az

WASHINGTON D.C. – The US State Department is "disappointed" that Azerbaijan and Armenia failed to agree on a roadmap for settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict during the Russian-brokered meeting of their leaders last Friday, a spokesperson has said.

"As you know, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan were not able to agree on the basic principles when they met in Kazan," Victoria Nuland told a press briefing in Washington on Monday. "However, in their joint statement with [Russian] President Medvedev, both of them noted that they had improved their understanding on a number of issues, agreed to keep working on the basic principles, and to come back together at a future date to be specified. But I would say it’s disappointing."

President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan in the Volga city of Kazan, for another round of talks seeking to end the two-decade conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. The parties did not manage to make headway in the peace process and even traded accusations after the meeting.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks are underway on the basis of the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs. The principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes.

France, another country mediating peace talks, does not consider the Kazan meeting as failed. In a statement, its foreign ministry also said France would do everything possible to move forward the conflict settlement process, along with the United States and Russia, the other co-chairs of the Minsk Group.

The French ministry cited the joint statement issued by the presidents in Kazan, saying the parties had struck a common ground on some issues. It said these points of commonality will facilitate work on the basic settlement principles and their further approval.

Prior to the Kazan meeting, both the Minsk Group co-chairing countries and the conflict parties made statements urging to sign an agreement on the basic principles of the conflict settlement during the summit. But such a document was not signed.