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The one-on-one talks between Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan were about settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Mr Medvedev proposed holding this meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents during a recent visit to Yerevan.

This is the second time Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan have met to discuss settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Their first meeting on the subject took place in St Petersburg on June 6, 2008, on the sidelines of an informal CIS summit.

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group has been the main forum for working towards settlement of the conflict. The Group represents 12 countries: Russia, the United States, France, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, and the OSCE ‘troika’ – (currently Spain, Finland and Greece).

Negotiations have been taking place under the aegis of the Minsk Group’s co-chairmen. The Group has been co-chaired since 1997 by Russia, the USA and France. The co-chairmen drafted proposals in November 2007 on basic principles for settlement (the Madrid Document).

The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met with Dmitry Medvedev following their talks.

The Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a joint declaration, the text of which was read out by Dmitry Medvedev at the end of the talks.

The Declaration notes that the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to continue work, including through further contacts at the highest level, on reaching a political settlement the settlement to the conflict and have instructed the heads of their respective foreign ministries to work together with the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group to activate the negotiation process.

In February 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, populated mainly by Armenians, declared its intention to secede from the Azerbaijan SSR and join the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. In September 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence, which set off open armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

A ceasefire agreement was reached in 1994 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, at negotiations in which Russia took part. Nagorno-Karabkh’s status has still not been settled to this day and the self-proclaimed republic has not been recognised by the international community.