Returning of Lachin and Kelbajar regions will be discussed next week: Mammadyarov

The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers will discuss the returning Lachin and Kelbajar regions at the first stage under the OSCE Foreign Ministers council to be held in Almaty, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists today, reported by APA.

"The meeting will be held July 16 or 17. The OSCE Co-Chairs have not presented us the specific dates yet," he added.

Mammadyarov said the negotiations continue with the Armenian side on the basis of the updated Madrid Principles.

"We have repeatedly discussed some of these principles in the past six years and now it makes no sense to get back to them," said Mammadyarov.

At a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan in January in Sochi, the OSCE Minsk Group presented the parties an updated version of the Madrid document.

"Historically the Lachin and Kelbajar regions have never been part of Nagorno-Karabakh. Today, the matter is the return of these two regions," Mammadyarov said, adding that the return of the remaining five regions have already been resolved and will be no longer discussed.