Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan in Yerevan said that Brazil is a peace-loving country and advocates peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Armenia media reported Nov. 17.
Aloysio Nunes Ferreira said that the issue should be resolved within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and truce must be maintained to achieve a lasting peace.
In turn, Edward Nalbandyan said that Russia, as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group and an important partner of Armenia and Azerbaijan, plays an important role in efforts to resolve the conflict.
He noted that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Armenia Nov. 20-21, and a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation will be discussed.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.