Secretary of State John Kerry met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on the margins of American Jewish Committee Global Forum.

Welcoming Mammadyarov before the meeting, Secretary of State said “Azerbaijan has been an important partner in Afghanistan, in ISAF, and equally important with respect to the northern distribution route but also the southern gas line and other issues that are of great importance to us.”

“As co-chair of the Minsk Group, we have a serious interest – the United States – in helping Azerbaijan and Armenia to be able to find a path forward. The last thing we want is a return to war and to conflict. I believe there is a path forward, and we will continue to work quietly and patiently in an effort to try to encourage the parties to be able to take either confidence-building measures that may get to further down the road or to find a way towards a settlement with respect to this issue,” he said.

In his turn, Azerbaijani FM said his country would successfully move forward together with the U.S., “including on the – one of the biggest problem of the conflict resolution with the neighbor Armenia, with whom we are definitely and desperately interested to live in peace with dignity, always that there will be all the negative outcome of the conflict will be in the past, and we will look to the bright future of successful cooperation and living next to each other as a good neighborhood.”

Asked whether the U.S. role in resolution will increase, John Kerry said Washington is working on that.

“We are working on that. We’re co-chairs of the Minsk Group. We have thoughts about how we can proceed down that road carefully and thoughtfully. Thank you very much.”

In his turn, Azerbaijani FM added that this would be discussed during the meeting.