Washington, 26 February 1997 (RFE/RL) - Armenian Foreign Minister Alexandre Arzoumanian is scheduled today to begin a two-day visit to the United States to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
He said the discussions will include the development of oil reserves in the Caspian Sea. Arzoumanian recently said the United States is trying to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
An OSCE-sponsored ceasefire has been in effect in the disputed enclave since May 1994. The enclave, inside Azerbaijan, is mostly populated by ethnic Armenians. Fighting erupted there in 1988, after the ethnic Armenians declared sovereignty. The ensuing years of conflict claimed more than 20,000 lives.