OSCE MG Group co-chair countries issue joint statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at G8 summit

In a statement released from Group of Eight summit in Italy, the three countries that co-chair a committee of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said they "affirm our commitment" to efforts by Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize "the basic principles for settlement" of the conflict.

The statement the so-called Minsk group put out Friday from the G-8 summit said, "We are instructing our mediators to present to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan an updated version" of a proposed peace outline brought forward in the Madrid Document of November 2007.

"We urge the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the few differences remaining between them and finalize their agreement on these Basic Principles, which will outline a comprehensive settlement," Friday's statement said.

Among the principles called for in the Madrid Document, and which the United States, Russia and France reaffirmed Friday, were "the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control and an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for security and self-government."

It also embraced "a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh" as well as a future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh "through a legally binding expression of will" and the right of "internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence."

/Trend News/