ArmInfo.Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and US OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Andrew Shaffer exchanged views on the start of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on a comprehensive peace treaty at a meeting on April 18.
According to the press service of the RA MFA, in this context Ararat Mirzoyan stressed the mediating role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
The meeting emphasized the importance of implementing the agreements on the establishment of the Commission on Delimitation and Border Security.
Ararat Mirzoyan presented to Andrew Shaffer the situation in Nagorno Karabakh. The parties discussed in detail the humanitarian issues that arose as a result of the 44-day war. In particular, the issues of immediate release, repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees, preservation of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories that came under the control of Azerbaijan.
It should be noted that last week the French mediator was in Yerevan, and at the end of March, the Russian one. Traditionally, the mediators visited the region together, and not separately, as this time.
It should be noted that on April 15, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that on February 24 this year, Washington and Paris stopped all contacts with Moscow within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group "troika". "Meanwhile, the real situation in the South Caucasus does not allow for pauses in negotiations. Further consistent steps are required to restore long- term peace and stability in the region, since the US and France have ceased cooperation as co-chairs," Zakharova said.
In this regard, she continued, Ambassador-at-Large Igor Khovaev will continue his work in a new capacity, namely, Special Representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on promoting the normalization of relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia.
And on April 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he found it difficult to say what the fate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship would be because of the Russophobic position of the West.