The meeting between the top diplomats of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on Friday afternoon followed active efforts by international negotiators to ensure options were open for continued negotiations between the two neighboring states.

Foreign ministers Edward Nalbandyan and Elmar Mammedyarov were meeting for the first time since the two countries’ presidents held talks in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, on June 6. The sides then sounded optimistic about the future of the negotiating process around the Nagorno-Karabakh issue mediated by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Last week Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza of the United States, Ambassador Yuri Merzylakov of Russia and Ambassador Bernard Fassier of France, who collectively chair the Minsk Group, called on the parties to the conflict to refrain from “maximalist initiatives on the ground, at the negotiating table, and in their public statements” and to avoid “all belligerent rhetoric” as they worked together “in pursuit of a peaceful settlement.”

The August 1 meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers is the latest initiative of the Minsk Group co-chairs. The parties are also due to meet the co-chairs in the Russian capital.

At a press conference in Yerevan on Wednesday, Minister Nalbandyan said: “We will make every effort, we will do our utmost to go the way of solving the Karabakh issue.”

Before the meeting, Mammedyarov said in Baku it was important for Armenia to show “a constructive position” and that such a position would be “useful” for the new Armenian authorities.

He also urged Armenia not to waste time and warned that otherwise damage would be great for Armenia “in conditions of strengthening Azerbaijan”.

A number of international structures reiterated the importance of the two countries’ finding a solution to the conflict ahead of the meeting of the two ministers that had the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen made in Madrid late last year high its agenda.

Thus, European Union Special Representative to the South Caucasus Peter Semneby emphasizes the importance of “constructive approaches” in the process of achieving a peaceful settlement to the conflict.

And Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, the Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, said during a press conference in Baku Wednesday: “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be solved within the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The specification of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status is a different matter. The principles of territorial integrity and Nagorno-Karabakh’s status do not contradict each other. The same happens in Georgia and Moldova.”

Talvitie emphasized that the OSCE welcomes a continued dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“We attach special importance to the settlement of the Karabakh issue and constantly hold discussions with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s leadership regarding the settlement process,” Nalbandyan said in Yerevan before leaving for Moscow. He also stressed that his meetings with Mammedyarov in Strasbourg and Saint-Petersburg also pursued that goal.

Speaking Armenian-Turkish relations, Nalbandyan said that “neither today, nor tomorrow Armenia’s authorities will take steps that would encourage the denial of the Armenian genocide.”

“There will be no such thing,” he underscored.

The minister said that the Armenian initiatives aimed at achieving normalized relations and an open border with the neighboring state have elicited a positive response on the international arena.

“We hope that the initiative will also evoke Turkey’s positive response,” Nalbandyan concluded.