The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, started his official trip to the South Caucasus with a June 2 visit to Baku, where he called for implementing tension-reducing measures regarding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the OSCE official website reported.

The visit also included meetings with Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, the Speaker of Parliament Ogtay Asadov and representatives of political parties and the civil society. Speaking about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Burkhalter encouraged President Aliyev to move step by step towards a peaceful settlement. He would welcome intensified negotiations and a next presidential meeting as a starting point of a structured process leading towards a peaceful solution, Burkhalter said.

Burkhalter expressed his regrets that 20 years after the 1994 ceasefire, violent incidents at the Line of Contact and the international border remain a frequent phenomenon. He called on the sides to strictly adhere to the ceasefire agreement, to implement an incident investigation mechanism, to encourage people-to-people contact and to agree on further confidence-building measures.

Burkhalter reiterated the full support of the Swiss Chairmanship for the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and his Personal Representative, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, in facilitating the negotiating process.

Later in the day, Burkhalter departed for Georgia to hold high-level talks. He will conclude his visit to the region on 4 June in Yerevan.

In his Twitter post, the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group welcomed Burkhalter’s call for structured peace negotiations for Nagorno Karabakh.