Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton hailed the recent meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Vienna.

Ashton commended the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and their efforts in facilitating the resumption of top level meetings, EU High Representative's press-service reported.

"The presidents' agreement to advance negotiations and meet again in the months ahead is encouraging," the report said.

Ashton said EU is ready to engage in renewed efforts towards political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to further contribute to peace-building efforts, in support of and in full complementarity with the OSCE Minsk Group.

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.

The Minsk Group mediators said in a statement following the talks 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 foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet in Kiev during the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting on December 5-6 to mull the settlement of the conflict.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.