The settlement of the Karabakh conflict should be a “package solution with stepwise implementation,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in an interview with Interfax.

“Over the past years we have been working on compromise formulations and have been very close to a settlement on several occasions, but every time Azerbaijan has made a step backward,” Minister Nalbandian said.

“The implementation of the agreements reached between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna will create necessary conditions for the settlement of conflict and the search for compromise solutions,” the Foreign Minister said.

During the meeting the parties reiterated that there can be no military solution to the conflict. The Co-Chairs insisted on the importance of respecting the 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements.

The Presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict. To reduce the risk of further violence, they agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism. The Presidents also agreed to the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office. Finally, they agreed to continue the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to which the Presidents committed during the Paris summit of October 2014.

Minister Nalbandian noted that “the first-ever participation of the Foreign Ministers of the co-chairing countries in the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan is a testament to the extreme importance the mediating countries attach to the implementation of the agreements.”

Minister Nalabandian voiced hope that Azerbaijan would not disappoint the hopes of the co-chairing countries and would come up to the expectations of the international community.