BAKU (Sputnik) – France is ready to provide Azerbaijan and Armenia with a platform for the next meeting of the two countries’ presidents, French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Aurelia Bouchez said Thursday.
"France welcomes resumption of negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. France will be glad to provide a platform for the next meeting of Azerbaijan’s and Armenia’s presidents," she said.
Azerbaijan's Armenian-dominated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence in 1991. After the military conflict ended in 1994, Azerbaijan lost control over the region. Violence erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh on April 2, 2016 and led to multiple casualties. The parties to the conflict signed a ceasefire on April 5.
On May 16, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met in Vienna to discuss the conflict. The sides reiterated there could be no military solution to the conflict and reaffirmed their commitment to 1994 and 1995 peace agreements.
On June 20, the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in St. Petersburg where they reaffirmed their commitment to achieve steady progress in political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to increase the number of OSCE monitors working in the conflict zone.
