Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov met in New York on Monday, 23 September.

The meeting arranged on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly was also attended by OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Stéphane Visconti of France, Andrew Schofer of the United States and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

During the meeting, the ministers discussed the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) peace process and assessed the current situation. The Armenian FM lauded the mediation efforts of the Minsk Group co-chairs and personal representative of the OSCE CIO, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

The Armenian side highlighted continued efforts to strengthen the ceasefire and reduce tensions. The need for consistent steps to build a climate of trust, including through the implementation of previously achieved arrangements, was also emphasized.

With regard to the Armenian citizens held captive in Azerbaijan, the Armenian side stressed the necessity for securing their repatriation.

In terms of advancing the peace process Mnatsakanyan attached importance to ensuring the proportionality of commitments undertaken by the parties in the settlement process, reiterating Armenia’s principled position on and approaches to the process.

The officials outlined the future steps in this direction, including the co-chairs’ regional visit and arrangement of another ministerial meeting in the near future.