October 16, 2017 - 17:40 AMT
Armenian, Azerbaijani presidents finally meet on Karabakh

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev held a summit on Monday, October 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs said in a statement.

Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov also attended the meeting, which was organized under the auspices of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States). The personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the summit.

The meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere.

The presidents agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions on the line of contact.

The co-chairs expressed their satisfaction with these direct talks, which took place after a long interval. They remain ready to work with the sides on mediating a peacefully negotiated settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. As a next step, the co-chairs will organize working sessions with the ministers in the near future.