Russia’s foreign minister has expressed his country’s readiness to join the OSCE Minsk Group efforts towards reaching a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

At a news conference in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov said Russia can propose new ideas, adding that it is up to the conflicting sides to have their final say in the process.

“Together with the Americans and the French, we stimulate both of the sides. We are ready to propose ideas to Baku and Yerevan, but the final say rests with them,” he said.

The Russian official said the Minsk Group co-chairs have prepared preliminary documents which are now being negotiated. Though the sides do not reject those proposals, Lavrov said additional efforts are needed to reach a fundamental agreement for resolving the regional conflict.

He said the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents’ 2013 meeting in Vienna (which was the first in the past two years) inspires positive hopes for reaching a progress.

Russia’s top diplomat also stressed the importance of abiding by the Vienna conventions.

The OSCE Minsk Group, composed of Russian, American and French co-chairs, has been spearheading the peace efforts over Karabakh since 1992.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics broke out in 1988 when the Armenian majority of the then autonomous region declared its intention of breaking away from Azerbaijan. In a referendum held on December 10, 1991 (days before the collapse of the USSR), the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence (99.89%). The move was followed by Azerbaijan’s large-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring regions. The Ceasefire Accord, which went into effect in May 1994, put an end to the armed operations in the conflict zone. Azerbaijan, nonetheless, very often breaks the ceasefire regime on the Line of Contact, increasing tension and causing human losses.