Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will arrive in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, on Thursday to resume talks on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.
The Minsk Group, comprising Russia, France and the United States, mediates the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over breakaway Nagorny Karabakh.
Russia's Igor Popov, the United States' Robert Bradtke and France's Bernard Fassier will meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov, the Azerbaijani ministry said.
The issue of Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region on Azerbaijani territory with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, has been a sticking point in relations between the two former Soviet states.
Ways to peacefully settle the conflict were last discussed January 24 at a meeting of the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian foreign ministers in Moscow.
The conflict first erupted in 1988, when the region claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia. More than 30,000 people are estimated to have died on both sides between 1988 and 1994. Nagorny Karabakh has remained in Armenian control since then.
The Caucasus neighbors continue to accuse each other of violating the ceasefire agreed in 1994.
BAKU, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
