The OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs will visit Baku, Yerevan and Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Romain Nadal, said.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault held telephone conversations with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian on Saturday and with the Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elmar Mammadyarov, on Monday.
According to Nadal, Ayrault "confirmed France's commitment, as part of the Minsk Group chairmanship, together with Russia and the US, to make efforts for finding a peaceful and sustainable solution to this conflict".
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.
