GENEVA (RFE/RL) — The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly agreed to intensify the protracted search for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and bolster the ceasefire regime in the conflict zone when they met in Geneva on Monday, October 16.
“The meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere,” read a joint statement issued by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers as well as the US, Russian and French co-chairs of the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] Minsk Group after the talks.
“The Presidents [Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev] agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions on the Line of Contact,” it said.
“The Co-Chairs expressed their satisfaction with these direct talks, which took place after a long interval … As a next step, the Co-Chairs will organize working sessions with the Ministers in the near future,” added the statement.
The talks began at the official residence of Switzerland’s permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva in the presence of the US, Russian and French mediators. They continued in a tete-a-tete format about an hour later.