Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh region in a telephone conversation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Lavrov and Ayrault exchanged opinion of the Normandy Quartet’s tasks to support the implementation of the Minsk Accords on overcoming the Ukrainian crisis, Nagorno-Karabakh, and some aspects of bilateral Russian-French contacts," TASS cited the ministry as saying.
Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.
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% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
