Presidents' coming Moscow meeting will mark another step in the negotiation process: OSCE secretary general

"The meetings that have taken place between the Presidents and Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia are critical to the progress we have seen recently, and the OSCE fully supports this dialogue," Brichambaut said.

"The upcoming meeting between the Presidents in Moscow on July 17 will mark another step in the negotiation process. As the OSCE Chairperson said when she was in Baku at the start of July, the latest developments in the negotiation process and the constructive discussions that have taken place are encouraging. There is a positive momentum in the discussions, and it is important to build on this."

"The intensified mediation efforts of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs as well as the confidence-building work of the Chairperson’s Personal Representative Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, are also very important," he said.

"The statement by the presidents of the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – France, Russia and the United States – at the G-8 summit are further indications of both the importance the international community places on achieving a peaceful, negotiated settlement, and of the fact that we believe there is an opportunity to make further progress. The statement announced that the Presidents of the Co-Chair countries are instructing the mediators to present an updated version of the 2007 Madrid document, which I hope will also help bring us closer to a comprehensive settlement," Brichambaut said.

/APA/