ArmInfo.The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France), and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk will hold a meeting in Moscow on September 8.
On August 31, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing that the OSCE MG Co-chairs are also expected to meet with the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership.
"The meeting will cover the topical issues of the Karabakh peace process. Special attention will be paid to the course of implementation of the agreements reached at the summits in Vienna (May 16) and in St. Petersburg (June 20), as well as to the prospects of further joint activities. These will be planned consultations, which are regularly held in Moscow, Washington and Paris and which aim to coordinate the three countries' efforts towards settlement of the Karabakh conflict," Zakharova said.
To recall, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in Saint Petersburg on June 20 2016 at the behest of Vladimir Putin. Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed doors. Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the conflict. The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the investigative mechanisms at the present stage of the settlement are irrelevant and the issue can be discussed after "withdrawal of Armenian troops from the NKR". He also stressed that the Office of the OSCE CiO Personal Representative can be expanded by no more than 12-13 people. Following the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg, france expressed willingness to host the next meeting on Karabakh in August 2016, but no meeting was oirganized.