Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs plan to visit the region next month to discuss the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The co-chairs have agreed on the need for further talks at the highest level to advance the peace process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the recent talks.

Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Ambassadors Igor Popov (Russia), Jacques Faure (France), and James Warlick (U.S.) held a series of meetings with Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, from February 22 to March 11 in Paris and Moscow, the OSCE reported.

Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, also participated in the meetings.

The co-chairs continued working with the ministers to address issues raised by the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan during their November 2013 meeting in Vienna. The ministers reiterated their desire to resolve the remaining issues, and move the process forward.

The co-chairs highlighted the value of continued cooperation, and agreed on the need for further talks at the highest level to advance the peace process.

As a continuation of consultations in the OSCE Minsk Group format on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with the co-chairs in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The topical issues of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were discussed at the meeting.

The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group later wrote on his Twitter account that the consultations in Moscow were constructive and Russia, the U.S., and France will continue their joint work aimed at supporting the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Warlick said the OSCE Minsk Group hopes the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet this month, and noted that only the presidents can address the most difficult issues regarding peace.

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.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France, and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.