On May 12, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Robert Bradtke of the United States, Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, and Jacques Faure of France, as well as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

According to the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Nalbandian named the visit of the co-chairs to Yerevan symbolic since it coincided with the 18th anniversary of the ceasefire agreement.

During the past year, the parties have had several opportunities to approach the conflict resolution, but Azerbaijan opted for regress each time, hindering settlement of the issue, Armenian Minister noted.

“Over the past years, Azerbaijan failed to overcome the temptation to settle the issue by the use of force, further proceeding with its military rhetoric instead of preparing its people for peace. Azerbaijan continues provocative actions at frontier line and purchases large-scale armament thus hampering the conflict resolution process and jeopardizing the fragile peace in the region,” Nalbandian said.

The meeting agenda also comprised implementation of agreements reached at trilateral meeting on January 23 between the presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, in particular, the mechanisms of investigation into border line incidents.