Russian FM to visit Azerbaijan next week

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 7 Trend : Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Azerbaijan July 11-12, said Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova during a weekly briefing July 7. Zakharova said Lavrov, after his trip to Azerbaijan, will pay a visit to Kazakhstan July 12-13. During the visit to Azerbaijan, Russia’s foreign minister will discuss the bilateral relations and the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A summit of Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev, Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sargsyan was held in St. Petersburg June 20 with participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. 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.