The Minsk Group co-chairmen were highly active although no results were achieved after the Key-West peace talks initiated by the US on April 3-7, 2001, for the peacful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The co-chairmen continued to meet the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia as a whole delegation after the Key-West discussions.

On July 12, 2001, at the regular negotiations held in Baku with the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, Russia was represented by the Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov besides Nikolai Gribkov as in Key-West. Other co-chairmen, Carrey Cavanaugh and Philip de Surmaine acted on behalf of the US and France respectively.

The US representative of the Minsk Group Carrey Cavanaugh said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed at the meetings between the presidents George W. Bush of the US and Vladimir Putin of Russia in Slovenia in June, and Vladimir Putin and the French President Jacques Chirac in St. Petersburg in July. He conveyed to Heydar Aliyev that the three presidents personally charged them to act together with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Cavanaugh stated that the US, Russian and French leaders are engaged in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict not fleetingly, but profoundly.

Carrey Cavanaugh also said that the current visit of the co-chairmen carried the goal to discuss the ways of the settlement of the conflict and prevent start of military operations after the Key-West failure.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov noted that the negotiations held between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the last year and a half were intensive and efficient.

President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev declared that he was satisfied with the fact that the three presidents attached a special importance to the issue. He said that there was solidarity among the leaders and representatives of the countries which chaired the Minsk Group not observed so before.

Heydar Aliyev said that the challenges of war were dangerous but natural, because the conflict has not been settled yet.

The Azerbaijani head of state approved the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group in that period despite all hardships and fruitfulness of talks: "Listening to you, and remembering the processes of the last months, I firmly declare that since the establishment the Minsk Group in 1992, I have never observed that they were so closely engaged in the solution of this problem as now. It is very positive and hopeful."

Historical background was compiled on March 30, 2006.