The co-chairmen of the Organization for Security and Cooperation's Minsk Group, the main international body negotiating a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, are holding the latest round of talks in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"We continue work on coordinating the basic principles. I hope that after the visit to Yerevan we will be able to specify the date and venue of the next meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents," the Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, told ATV after meetings with the Azerbaijani leadership on Thursday.
"As for new proposals on the basis of the Madrid principles, they are not written once and for all time but change in the process of negotiations and new proposals may also emerge," Merzlyakov said.
He said the co-chairs would not have time to visit Nagorno-Karabakh on this occasion.
In turn, French mediator Bernard Fassier said the co-chairs are working on strengthening the basic principles.
"We have been working with the parties on the proposals that are called the ‘basic principles’ for two years now and we try to achieve progress. We want to strengthen these principles and make additions to them if needed. We will continue this work until we make the presidents agree on the documents or until they empower us to prepare the text of the agreement," Fassier said.
The Minsk Group co-chairmen are having meetings in Yerevan on Friday and will return to Baku in the evening