OSCE MG co-chairs to mull presidential meeting during South Caucasus visit

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

The U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan has said the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the South Caucasus is under discussion.

The issue of organizing a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents will be discussed during this visit, Robert Cekuta said at an event dedicated to the U.S. Independence Day in Baku on July 2.

The latest meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan took place in Paris, France last October through the French president's initiative.

Cekuta said at the meeting, the leaders of the two countries would have the opportunity to discuss ways to promote peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier, James Warlick, the Minsk Group’s U.S. co-chair said the OSCE Minsk Group is working on organizing the meeting, noting that mediating a new meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan is the main call of the Minsk Group.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents periodically meet to discuss the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the sidelines of negotiations. However, the talks have so far failed to produce any genuine results, given the Armenian side's inclination to remain belligerent rather than engage in peace-making.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since then, a lengthy war in the early 1990s displaced over one million Azerbaijanis and led Armenian armed forces to occupy over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Cekuta further spoke about the achievements of the United States over these years, saying that the U.S. and Azerbaijan continue to work on the creation of strong relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Ismayil Ismayilov, Azerbaijan’s deputy Youth and Sports minister said Azerbaijan hopes that the U.S., as the co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, will be active in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ismayilov congratulated the American people on their Independence Day on behalf of the government of Azerbaijan. He said relations between the two countries have been developing in various fields, especially in economic and security sphere since 1992.

He added that Azerbaijan assisted the United States in operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, and the country is ready to cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism in the future.