OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS SAY PEACEFUL RESOLUTION TO CONFLICT OVER NK IS ‘IMPERATIVE AND ACHIEVABLE’

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
June 7 2006

BUCHAREST, 6 June 2006 – The three Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,
which deals with the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, have issued
a statement following their June 4 meeting in Bucharest with the
presidents and foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Their
statement reads:

“In Bucharest on June 4, 2006, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov (Russian Federation), Ambassador Steven
Mann (USA), and Ambassador Bernard Fassier (France), and the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office (PRCIO), Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk, assembled at the Embassy of Poland and met with
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, together with their Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Vartan
Oskanian and Elmar Mammadyarov. This meeting followed the late May
joint visit to Baku and Yerevan at the Deputy Minister level of the
Co-Chair countries, in which these representatives urged the sides
to intensify their dialogue to achieve an agreement on the basic
principles of the settlement. The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE,
Minister Karel de Gucht, welcomed the Presidents and delivered
opening remarks. The discussion covered the full range of issues
relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. On June 5, the Co-Chairs,
the PRCIO and the Presidents, with their Foreign Ministers, conducted
a second meeting.

The Co-Chairs remain of the opinion that a peaceful resolution of the
issues is both imperative and achievable, and that 2006 remains the
favorable window to achieve such progress. The Co-Chairs continue to
believe that the basic principles they have identified and proposed
to the parties for settlement of the conflict offer an equitable
basis for such a resolution. They regret that the parties have not
yet come to agreement on these principles.

The Co-Chairs expressed their intention to report to the Permanent
Council of the OSCE later in June on their activity in the previous
months.”