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A fresh round of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh is likely to be held between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov in January 2018, Ambassador Alexander Lukashevich, Permanent Representative of Russia to the OSCE said on Monday.

Speaking at the Moscow-Vienna teleconference at Russia, Alexander Lukashevich stated this year was highly important in terms of avoiding dangerous escalation in the region and gradually restoring the negotiation process. “We have welcomed the contacts between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan throughout the year, they worked quite hard due to which a joint statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries was adopted on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna on December 7-8,” he said.

Mr. Lukashevich announced the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents agreed to activate the negotiation process and to focus their efforts on finding compromise solutions to the conflict in Geneva on 16 October.

According to him, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers can be expected to hold a regular meeting in the near future, perhaps in January.

“We support this trend. Russia has an important impact on the negotiation process. We hope to reach a mutually acceptable solution soon through the support of our partners of Baku and Yerevan,” he added.