French President Francois Hollande on Thursday, October 20 appointed new Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Stéphane Visconti was named the country's new mediator to replace Pierre Andrieu who took the post in 2014.

At a meeting in Helsinki in 1992, the then-CSCE (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe)Council requested the Chairman-in-Office to convene as soon as possible a conference on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict involving Armenia and Azerbaijan. This event was to take place in Minsk and provide a forum for negotiations towards a peaceful settlement. In 1994, the OSCE Budapest Summit established the so-called Minsk Group, which continues to work for the creation of conditions in which such a conference can take place. The other Co-chairs are Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia and James Warlick of the United States . The Group’s permanent members are Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Turkey, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan.