Moscow: Russia welcomes the activation of the negotiation process on the Karabakh settlement
ArmInfo. Russia welcomes the activation of the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, including the upcoming meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, and is interested in its effectiveness. This was in an interview with the information agency Interfax, State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin, commenting on the forthcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"We support the aspirations of Yerevan and Baku to seek compromise solutions based on the existing developments, and we will continue to mediate with the co-chairing partners in the Minsk Group to mediate a peaceful settlement of the protracted conflict." This unified position of Russia, the United States and France was clearly formulated in a joint statement of heads of delegations of the three countries at a meeting of foreign ministers of the OSCE participating states held in Vienna in early December of this year, "the Russian diplomat said.
At the same time, he recalled that in October 2017, after a long break in Geneva, with the assistance of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement was held. "It was agreed to intensify the negotiation process and take additional measures aimed at reducing tensions on the contact line between the conflicting parties." In this regard, the co-chairs held separate consultations in November this year with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, and in December this year they organized a ministerial meeting in Vienna, on the sidelines of the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council, key issues of the settlement were discussed, on which consensus had not yet been reached. actions conducive to the de-escalation of the situation in the conflict zone, concrete proposals related to the expansion of the OSCE observer mission were transferred to the sides.The ministers agreed to continue the conversation on these and other issues of the NKU in January 2018 with the participation of the mediators," Karasin concluded.