Lavrov: Russia is against the buildup of military activity in the  South Caucasus

ArmInfo.Russia is against the buildup of military activity in the South Caucasus. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this on October 6 in Moscow at a  briefing after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein  Amirabdollahian, referring to the situation in the South Caucasus.

He once again recalled the invariability of the Russian position on  the regional situation and underlined that it was Russia that played  a decisive role in stopping the war in the zone of the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict a year ago, as well as in the conclusion of  a trilateral statement at the level of the leaders of Armenia,  Azerbaijan and Russia, in accordance with which has deployed a  Russian peacekeeping mission in the conflict zone, providing calm and  creating conditions for the restoration of peaceful life.

The Russian Foreign Minister added that the same joint statement  contained principles defining further steps to advance the  settlement, including work to unblock all transport communications  and economic ties in the region.

According to Lavrov, not only Armenia and Azerbaijan will benefit  from this, but also Georgia - as another Transcaucasian country, as  well as Iran, Russia, and Turkey - as the closest neighbors of the  three republics of the South Caucasus.

"In this context, we discussed today the initiative to create a" 3 +  3 "format - three Transcaucasian countries and their three large  neighbors (Iran, Russia and Turkey). Iranian friends have a positive  attitude towards this initiative; we observe the same attitude in  Azerbaijan and Turkey. We work with our Armenian counterparts. We  hope that Georgia, despite all the problems it is experiencing, will  be able to see its fundamental interest in creating such a mechanism  of consultations and agreeing on solutions for the accelerated  development of this region, which has been holding back its  development for a long time due to the persisting conflicts, " Lavrov  said.  At the same time, the Russian Foreign Minister spoke out  against the buildup of military activity in the region. "I am against  any exercises of a provocative nature. There are some concerns  expressed by the same Azerbaijan in connection with the recent  exercises of our Iranian friends held near the border," Lavrov said.

In turn, the Iranian Foreign Minister, reacting to the latest  proposal of his Russian counterpart, stressed the importance of  preventing the interference of non-regional countries in the  processes in the region.. "We stand for good-neighborliness between  all countries of the region and the world. And I very much hope that  in the near future we will reach the point at which there would be no  tension, misunderstandings, conflict in the region. Mr. Lavrov  touched upon the exercises that are taking place in the region. It  should be noted that Azerbaijan has conducted six exercises with  various countries on a permanent basis, the Iranian minister said,  calling these exercises provocative.

According to him, despite the fact that each country itself decides  the issue of their implementation, the accumulation of such a  quantity of weapons does not inspire good emotions in the region.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has recently conducted only one  exercise and only after the appropriate diplomatic notification to  all countries in the region. These exercises were carried out inside  Iran and were a message of peace, stability and security in the  region, and nothing else," Amirabdollahian summed up