Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh met on Wednesday in Vienna to discuss and coordinate their activities, leading up to the OSCE Ministerial Council due in December in Vilnius.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs - Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States and Igor Popov of Russia - also briefed the Minsk Group "on the continued high-level engagement with the sides" by their governments, and on efforts to strengthen the ceasefire and to reach endorsement of the Basic Principles, an outline for a peace agreement, the co-chairs said in a statement.

On Thursday, the mediators met with OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier to further discuss "these and other aspects of the peace process."

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since the 1994 ceasefire.

The Basic Principles, which lie at the core of the ongoing peace talks, include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of IDPs and refugees to return home.