Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met on Sunday in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and agreed to intensify efforts to settle the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
Lluis Maria de Puig urged the presidents to keeping talking and working toward a settlement, and said PACE would do whatever it could to move the process forward.
"I wish to congratulate Presidents Aliyev and Sarksyan, and President Medvedev, who facilitated the meeting, on their commitment to finding a peaceful solution to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict," he said in a statement released by PACE.
"The start of this dialogue, which will be followed by intensified diplomatic efforts and the promotion of a series of confidence-building measures, is a window of hope for the entire region," the chairman said.
"The Parliamentary Assembly stands ready to help the parliaments of Armenia and Azerbaijan in all their efforts, so that the process just started proves successful," he added.
Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, declared its independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia in 1988 and has been a source of conflict ever since.
