All sides insist on their continued commitment to a settlement reached through negotiations.
Each party, however, at one time or other, rejected at least one of the proposals, thereby preventing negotiations from restarting within the OSCE framework. The Minsk Group Co-Chairs declined to submit further proposals, prompting Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian to initiate a direct dialogue in April 1999. The two presidents have met over a dozen times since then in pursuit of a settlement. Details of their talks remain confidential. The Co-Chairs have welcomed the direct dialogue as complementary to the multilateral diplomatic track.