Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Following the Vienna talks, Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents agreed to advance negotiations toward a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The news was announced by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs after the meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsian in Vienna on November 19.

The Foreign Ministers of the two countries and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States, and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office also participated at the meeting.

This was the Presidents' first meeting since their January 2012 summit in Sochi.

The Minsk Group mediators noted that during their private one-on-one meeting and the working session afterward with the co-chairs and the Ministers, the Presidents discussed a broad range of issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Presidents instructed their Foreign Ministers to continue cooperation with the co-chairs to build on the work to date with the aim of intensifying the peace process.

"They agreed to meet again in the months ahead," the statement reads.

As a next step, the co-chairs will organize a working session with the Ministers on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which will take place on December 5-6 in Kyiv.

The co-chairs also plan to visit the region before the end of the year.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara welcomed the Presidents' meeting.

"I trust that the highest-level dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan will contribute to strengthening confidence and mutual understanding between the parties, and will provide a positive incentive for the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement," Kozhara said.

He expressed his belief that such negotiations will serve as a warranty for peace, stability, and opening new opportunities for regional co-operation.

"The Ukrainian chairmanship stands ready to further facilitate the efforts of Azerbaijan and Armenia with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the establishment of regular dialogue aimed at reaching a comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of international law," Kozhara said.

The United States also hailed the meeting between Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the statement published on the official website of the U.S. State Department said.

"We commend the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan for this first step, and are encouraged they have agreed to a follow-up meeting in the months ahead," department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

According to Psaki, this summit is an important step toward restarting dialogue and demonstrates the leaders' shared commitment to bring an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Psaki said as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group along with Russia, and France, the United States urges both Presidents to work actively towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict, which has taken a heavy toll on the people on all sides.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.