March 28, 2014 - 20:52 AMT
Armenian, Azeri FMs to meet in preparation for presidential talks

The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States) issued a statement to report on their meetings with President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in The Hague on March 23-24.

The Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also attended the meetings.

According to the statement, the Co-chairs informed the Presidents of the work done with the Foreign Ministers on the issues raised during the summit meeting in November. They emphasized the need "to avoid violence on the border and the line of contact, and encouraged the sides to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric that could increase tensions in the region."

The Foreign Ministers agreed to meet in Moscow in early April in preparation for a meeting of the Presidents in the near future.