ArmInfo. Artsakh's Foreign Ministry issued a statement in connection with the adoption by the US House of Representatives of an amendment to the law on budgetary allocation for national defense proposed by Congressman Judy Chu.
The statement of the NKR MFA, in particular, states:
We are convinced that the consistent strengthening of the cease-fire regime, including through the introduction of international control mechanisms, will help create a favorable atmosphere for effective negotiations for a peaceful settlement.
Artsakh has repeatedly stressed the importance of creating conditions for the continuation of the peace process and has come up with constructive initiatives to implement measures to build confidence. As a final example, the official Stepanakert's willingness to provide data from the video monitoring systems on the border situation to the international intermediary can be cited. Moreover, this system of continuous monitoring on the contact line can become an integral part of the international mechanism to monitor the strengthening of the ceasefire. Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani side has consistently rejected both the proposals of the Artsakh side and the mediators, including the initiative of congressmen Ed Royce and Eliot Engel. We hope that the amendment proposed by Judy Chu will be a stimulus for the implementation of the "Reuss-Engel" initiative. It should be noted that the US House of Representatives adopted a multi-party resolution by Congressman Judy Chu on the implementation of measures to reduce tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone. The resolution envisages to install fire-locating systems, reduce snipers and heavy equipment from the advanced Artsakh-Azerbaijani troops to reduce tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone, increase the number of observers. The document must be included in the US National Defense Act 2020 for the fiscal year. In 2015, a similar document was submitted by congressmen Engel and Royce. In addition, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on similar proposals in Vienna and St. Petersburg, but Baku continues to reject these documents.