US Vice President Joe Biden had telephone conversations with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday, discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with both.
The United States is working to resolve the conflict in Karabakh as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. Secretary of State John Kerry met the two presidents in Vienna on Monday at their first meeting since the four-day war.
"The Vice President welcomed the agreements reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan during the discussions led by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries in Vienna on May 16, and the leaders agreed on the importance of quickly following through on the pledge to expand the existing OSCE mission and to finalize an OSCE investigative mechanism," said Biden's office in a statement on Friday evening.
"The Vice President urged continued respect for the cease-fire and emphasized the importance of the planned June discussions to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement."
Biden met both men at a summit in Washington at the end of March, just days before fighting before Armenia and Azerbaijan, the worst for two decades, began on April 2.
The two other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are Russia and France. Earlier on Friday, Russian prime minister Dmitri Medvedev travelled to Yerevan to meet with Sargsyan, where Medvedev reiterated Russian support for resolving the conflict. French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is to visit Baku soon, it was announced on Thursday.
SOURCE: commonspace.eu and agencies
PHOTO: Biden and Sargsyan meeting in Washington
