YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — International mediators are trying to organize another meeting of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers later this month, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, January 8.
“The [US, Russian and French] co-chairs of the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] OSCE Minsk Group have proposed a meeting of the foreign ministers in January,” the ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalyan, told the Armenpress news agency. “An announcement on the meeting will be made in a coordinated manner.”
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov held three face-to-face meetings in the second half of 2018.
According to the co-chairs, at their most recent talks held in Milan on December 5 Mnatsakanyan and Mammadyarov pledged to “work intensively to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict and to further reduce tensions.”
“They agreed to meet again in early 2019 under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for this purpose and in order to facilitate high-level talks,” the mediating troika said in a December 6 statement.
Both ministers described the Milan meeting as “useful.” Mammadyarov said that it resulted in a rare “mutual understanding” between the two parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
