Azernews.Az

Another trilateral meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia to discuss the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is scheduled for January 23 in the Russian city of Sochi, the Russian president's website said Wednesday.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group will also take part in the meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev.

Nine such trilateral meetings on the Karabakh conflict have been held since 2008. During the latest meeting, hosted by President Medvedev in June 2011 in the Volga city of Kazan, the parties did not agree on a roadmap of a peace agreement, despite calls from the leaders of the mediating countries – the United States, Russia and France.

Minister Lavrov has told a press conference that he will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov on Thursday in Moscow to make preparations for the upcoming presidential meeting, Russia 24 TV channel reported.

"Russia intends to continue its efforts to address the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, including within the OSCE Minsk Group," he said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy 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 a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994. Numerous rounds of OSCE-brokered negotiations have been fruitless so far.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.