First agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the Line of Contact

During the meeting between Foreign Ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – Sergey Lavrov, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, on May 28 in Moscow, an agreement was reached to increase the number of international observers in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone up to 7, OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov said in an interview with the Azerbaijani APA news agency.

“Agreement was reached to increase the number of international observers up to 7. Both sides support this. However, there are still some disagreements over certain details, including placing observers, financing their activities and other technical issues. At the moment the OSCE Austrian chairmanship is working with the organization’s respective structures, as well as with the representatives of both sides to reach an agreement on these issues,” Popov said.

The Russian Co-Chair said during the Moscow meeting no progress was achieved, however, after a long break the sides could meet again and exchange views on problematic issues and clarify each other’s stances. Igor Popov informed that the Minsk Group plans to visit the region in future to discuss the further contacts between the conflicting sides.