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Armenian, Azerbaijani foreign ministers discuss Karabakh settlement

YEREVAN, December 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mamedyarov, have discussed the Karabakh settlement on the sidelines of the Council of OSCE Foreign Ministers currently underway in the Ukrainian capital.

After the tête-à-tête talks the talks have been joined by co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France, James Warlick of the United States and personal envoy of the OSCE chairman-in-office Anjey Kasprzik.

“Within the context of a meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilkham Aliyev in Vienna on November 19, the co-chairmen continued discussions with the ministers in order to promote the peace process,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday.

The ministers and the co-chairmen agreed to continue discussions on the peaceful Karabakh settlement.

At present, Armenia and Azerbaijan are searching for ways to work out a draft agreement on framework principles to settle the conflict. When accord is reached the parties will start talks on a peace agreement on comprehensive settlement of the conflict.

The military stage of the conflict was stopped in May 1994 when the parties signed the Bishkek protocol with the mediation of Russia and the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly. Both parties observe ceasefire without any interference.

In recent years the mediators have put forth proposals on a draft peace agreement that was rejected by Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, or Azerbaijan.

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