Tuesday, August 16 2016 03:41

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are in frequent touch with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and meet often, the US Co-chair of the OSCE MG James Warlick told APA.

APA quotes Ambassador Warlick as saying, "There are no specific plans for August, but we look forward to continuing our regular contact and close cooperation with both Ministers.  In Vienna and St.  Petersburg, the Presidents stated their readiness to meet again to advance a negotiated settlement.  We continue to explore opportunities to bring them together again, and we remain in regular contact with them and their Foreign Ministers to discuss the existing proposals."

To note, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met in Vienna on May 16 to advance a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict. To reduce the risk of further violence, they agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism. The Presidents also agreed to the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office.  Finally, they agreed to continue the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to which the Presidents committed during the Paris summit of October 2014. The Presidents agreed on a next round of talks, to be held in June at a place to be mutually agreed, with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.

On June 20, 2016, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in Saint Petersburg at the behest of Vladimir Putin. Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed doors.  Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the conflict.  The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg.