Azernews.Az

Russia, along with other members of the OSCE Minsk Group will continue its efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a briefing in Moscow, Trend news agency reported referring to the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"If we want to resolve the problem in practice, then it is necessary to act as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group," Lavrov said.

According to Lavrov, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk have been working for several years to prepare the agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, but the parties have not agreed on the items of the final document.

"In May 2010, at the summit of the Group of Eight, Russian, U.S. and French presidents issued a statement calling on Baku and Yerevan to approve the document on the settlement, but at the meeting of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict parties in Kazan, the document was not approved," he said.

According to Lavrov, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict parties' ministers meet at this stage of negotiations, work continues and the OSCE Minsk Group proposed a truncated version of the document on the settlement to the parties, but there are no results yet.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.