OSCE Minsk Group Issue Statement on Presidential Summit

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs meet with presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Bern, Switzerland.

On Saturday, December 19, following days of escalated violence along the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact, Armenian President President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Bern, Switzerland.

It was the first time the two had met since October 2014.

The meeting was mediated by the three co-chairs of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Minsk Group. The OSCE is a 57-country group established in 1973, which created the Minsk Group in 1992 in order to facilitate a peace process for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Aside from the facilitated meeting, the presidents met privately for over an hour. Foreign Affairs Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, also joined later in the negotiations.

The Minsk Group co-chairs have released the following statement on the meeting:

The President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsian and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held a summit today in Bern under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France).  The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the summit.

The summit created an opportunity for the Presidents to clarify their respective positions during their one-on-one meeting.  

The Presidents discussed recent violence and expressed particular concern about casualties, including civilians, caused by the use of heavy weapons.  The Presidents supported the Co-Chairs' ongoing work on proposals regarding measures to reduce the risk of violence along the Line of Contact and Armenia-Azerbaijan border, including an investigation mechanism.

The Presidents confirmed their readiness to continue engagement on proposals regarding a settlement currently under negotiation.  They also reaffirmed their commitment to the Minsk Group format.  

The Co-Chairs remain ready to work with the sides on mediating a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.