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12 July 2017

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have made a statement regarding the meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian in Brussels July 11, the OSCE website said July 12.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Ambassador Igor Popov of Russia, Ambassador Stephane Visconti of France, and Ambassador Richard Hoagland of the US) met July 11 with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian to discuss modalities of further work on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to the statement.

The personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the meeting, said the statement.

“The ministers agreed to pass to their presidents the co-chairs’ proposal for a high-level meeting later this year,” the statement noted. “The co-chairs offered their assistance in organizing this meeting.”

The current situation on the contact line between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops was also discussed, according to the statement.

The ministers and the OSCE MG co-chairs agreed to meet again in New York in September on the margins of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, said the statement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.