Meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh should facilitate resumption of talks - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. The planned meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents with participation of foreign ministers of Russia, US and France should facilitate stabilization of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and resumption of the negotiations process, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday. "The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold a meeting next week in Vienna. It is also planned that the foreign ministers of co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, United States, France - will take part in the meeting," Zakharova said. "The main aim of consultations that are currently being coordinated, is to try to strengthen the ceasefire regime, reduce military risks, agree on strengthening concrete confidence-building measures," she added. "We proceed from the fact that such meeting may and should facilitate stabilization of the situation in the conflict zone and, of course, create necessary conditions for resuming the negotiations process aimed at achieving comprehensive settlement," Zakharova said. On Saturday, April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan. On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time. Though the ceasefire mostly holds, both sides continue to report occasional violations of ceasefire on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh. Read more