BAKU, December 5. /TASS/: The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, agreed to hold their next meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement early next year, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s press service said on Thursday.
The two top diplomats met in Bratislava on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Conference in the Slovak capital.
"The ministers agreed to continue the negotiations and to hold another meeting early next year," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the Azerbaijani ministry, the participants held "broad discussions,"which lasted more than three hours and were mediated by co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group.
"The sides discussed the current state of the negotiation process and ways of the Karabakh conflict's peace settlement," the statement says.
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region declared its secession from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. During the armed conflict of 1992-1994, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabah and seven neighboring areas. There have been negotiations on a peaceful settlement to the conflict under the OSCE Minsk Group headed by the co-chairs (Russia, US and France) in place since 1992.
