OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs to meet with foreign ministers of Armenia  and Azerbaijan on sidelines of UN General Assembly, James Warlick  says 

ArmInfo. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs plan to meet with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, US Co-chair of the OSCE MG, Ambassador James Warlick told APA on September 1.     APA quotes James Warlick as saying, "The co-chairs remain actively  engaged with the sides and plan to meet with the foreign ministers of  Azerbaijan and Armenia at the UN General Assembly in New York later  this month." 

Warlick said they hope to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey  Lavrov and others next week in Moscow. "We look forward to discussing  the implementation of agreements reached between the presidents of  Azerbaijan and Armenia at recent summit meetings in Vienna and St.  Petersburg," he noted. The Co-chairs also plan to discuss the next  steps in the negotiations process including proposals on the table  that could lead to a comprehensive settlement, Warlick added.  

Earlier Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said  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. She added that the Co-chairs are  also expected to meet with the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership.   

To note, the 71st session of the UN General Assembly will be held  from 13 to 26 September in New York. 

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  organized.