ArmInfo. The meeting between the President of the Auvergne- Ron-Alpes Regional Council, Laurent Wauquiez , and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh, Masis Mayilyan, and the signing of their joint declaration angered Baku.
In this regard, French Ambassador Zacharie Gross was invited to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, where him was presented a note of protest.
According to Turan, during the meeting of the Ambassador with Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov, it was stated that the calls reflected in the declaration "strike a blow at the negotiation process to resolve the Karabakh conflict and contain support for the position of the occupier of Armenia."
The Ambassador was told that the signing of such allegedly illegal documents by local and regional authorities in France, a leading EU country and co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, "casts a shadow" on the impartial mediating role of Paris.
The French ambassador was requested to intervene in this matter by the French Foreign Ministry and provide clarifications to the Azerbaijani side.
In turn, Grosr said that such actions by local and municipal authorities do not have any legal force and do not reflect the position of the French government. He noted that France's position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains fundamental and unchanged.
At the same time, the ambassador emphasized that the French government does not support the program of Wauquiez's visit to Yerevan. His meeting with the representative of Artsakh was held after the completion of the official part of the visit and the French ambassador to Armenia was not present.
It should be noted that by the efforts of the Azerbaijani side, declarations and memoranda between Artsakh and the regions of France are annulled by judicial decisions. We also note that all these declarations are called upon to strengthen cooperation in the humanitarian sphere.