Azernews.Az

OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict will pay their next visit to the region in October, Russian co-chair of the Minsk Group, Igor Popov, told the Baku-based APA news agency. He did not cite the date of the visit, saying it was being scheduled.

Popov said that during the visit he and his counterparts, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States, will meet with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and foreign ministers to discuss the Karabakh conflict.

The mediators met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and then with Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan last Thursday in Warsaw to discuss next steps aimed at reaching a peaceful conflict settlement, they said earlier in a statement. The statement also said the co-chairs presented their work plan for the coming months, leading up to the December OSCE Ministerial Council in Vilnius. They pledged to "continue to work with the sides to delineate their current differences" on the Basic Principles as a framework for a comprehensive peace settlement.

The co-chairs also will propose additional measures aimed at strengthening implementation of the 1994 ceasefire, improving the atmosphere on the ground, and promoting understanding among peoples of the region, the statement said. It added that the mediators plan to visit the region again in the near future to carry out this work plan.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since the ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

The Basic Principles, which lie at the core of peace talks, include the return of the territories surrounding the Nagorno Karabakh region 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 to return home.