Minsk Group Issues Joint Statement on Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Jul 19th, 2010 | Category: Lead ArticleHeads of delegations of the OSCE Minsk Group and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the informal meeting of Foreign Ministers of OSCE member-states. Almaty, July 17
By Victoria Vardanyan
YEREVAN, July 19– The Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and Deputy US Secretary of State James Steinberg — issued a joint statement on the status of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict peace settlement on Saturday.
They met on the margins of the OSCE Informal Ministerial with the Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian and Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The Heads of Delegation of the Co-Chair countries referred to a joint statement on Nagorno Karabakh of December 1, 2009 released at the OSCE Ministerial meeting in Athens, reminding the parties of their obligation to come to a peaceful settlement, based on the principles of the Helsinki Final Act which stipulates refraining from using force or threat of force, territorial integrity, as well as equal rights and self-determination of people.
They affirmed that the elements set forth by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Barack Obama on July 10, 2009 in L’Aquila, Italy and confirmed on June 26 in Muskoka, Canada “must be the foundation of any fair and lasting settlement to the conflict.”
The proposed elements make an integrated whole and any attempt to make any element dominant over the other would make it impossible to achieve a balanced solution.
Kouchner and Steinberg thanked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for their efforts to bridge differences between the parties, taking into account the situation discussed at the meetings in Sochi on January 25 and in St. Petersburg on June 17.
The Heads of Delegation of Russia, France and the United States stressed that the efforts undertaken by the parties to the conflict so far were insufficient to overcome the existing differences.
They warned that the use of force has created the current situation and its use can only lead to suffering, death, the continuation of confrontation and hostility from generation to generation.
The authors of the statement called for the strengthening of the spirit of compromise to “reach agreement on a common basis for continuing the negotiations.”
“Additional actions by the sides are needed to reinforce the ceasefire of 1994 and to create a more favorable atmosphere for further political dialogue and reaching agreements,” the statement reads.
