Photo: EPA/MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI

Italy plans to focus on frozen conflicts during its chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2017, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Monday after talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, TASS reports.

“In the period of its chairmanship in the OSCE and non-permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, we will focus on frozen conflicts,” he told a news conference. In his words, Italy can make a contribution to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Mammadyarov, in turn, said that the meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian top diplomats is scheduled for early December in Germany’s Hamburg within the framework of an OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. “The Azerbaijani side gave its consent for this meeting,” he said.