President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron call for a ceasefire in Karabakh

Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump, the President’s of Russia, France and the United States of America, on Thursday called for a ceasefire in the Nagorny Karabakh region and urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to commit to talks without delay or preconditions, as per report AFP.

“We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces,” French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump of the US said in a statement released by the Elysee.

“We also call on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to commit without delay to resuming substantive negotiations,” said the leaders, whose countries are the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group that has sought a solution to the conflict since the 1990s.

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The statement indicated that talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be conducted “in good faith and without preconditions,” it must also be held under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. 

The Minsk group was initially created in 1992 by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and has overseen summits between Armenian and Azeri leaders. The group, however, has failed to find any lasting resolution to the conflict.

The fiercest clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in years over the region erupted last Sunday. The number of confirmed deaths neared 130 as fighting raged for a fifth day.

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The rival Caucasus nations have been locked in a bitter stalemate over the Karabakh region since the collapse of the Soviet Union when the ethnic Armenian region broke away from Azerbaijan.

Karabakh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan sparked a war in the early 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives. Controlled by ethnic Armenians, the region is still not recognised as independent by any country, including Armenia.