Karabakh to be in spotlight of Russia-France meeting June 29

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian and French Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jean Marc Ayrault will discuss the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in late June, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday, June 23.

According to Maria Zakharova, the parties will analyze prospects for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict on June 29.

Also, the foreign policy chiefs will weigh in on the Ukraine and Syrian crises, the situation in the Middle East and Libya.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday discussed the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with the Minsk Group Co-chairs, the German OSCE Chairmanship tweeted on June 23.

Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meeting.

A tripartite summit of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin was held in Saint Petersburg on Monday.

The sides adopted a declaration which reads:

"The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents confirmed their commitment to the implementation of agreements reached at a Vienna-hosted meeting on May 16. To that end, they have agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. Also, they expressed satisfaction that the ceasefire was now holding."

According to the declaration, the parties stressed reaching mutual understanding in a host of issues to ensure progress in settling the conflict.

"The Presidents emphasized the importance of regular meetings to resolve the issue and pledged to hold such summits regularly," the statement says.