Friday, July 1 2022 15:16

ArmInfo. France remains fully committed to its role as Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which continues to function. This is stated in the statement of the French  Foreign Ministry following the visit of the Secretary of the Security  Council of the Republic of Armenia Armen Grigoryan to Paris.

"Grigoryan was informed about the latest consultations between the  French and American co-chairs and the representative of the current  OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office, to which the Russian co-chair for the  third time did not want to join," the French Foreign Ministry  stressed.

At the same time, the message of the Ministry notes that the meeting  with Grigoryan at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs made it  possible to discuss various topics related to the normalization of  relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in particular humanitarian  issues, the process of border delimitation, the opening of regional  communication channels, the issue of a peace treaty between Armenia  and Azerbaijan.  "France fully supports the efforts of the European  Union to promote normalization, including the establishment of a  bilateral commission on border issues. Paris will continue to  actively contribute to these efforts.

They also touched upon the rights and security guarantees of the  population of Nagorno-Karabakh," the French Foreign Ministry  stressed.

It should be noted that on April 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei  Lavrov noted that he does not know what the future of the OSCE Minsk  Group will be, since  the West has stopped contacting Moscow in this  format, against the  backdrop of the situation around Ukraine.

Then, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria   Zakharova, informed that on February 24, Washington and Paris stopped   all contacts with Moscow within the "troika" of the co-chairs of the   OSCE Minsk Group. "Meanwhile, the 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.

Days earlier, Karen Donfried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for  European and  Eurasian Affairs, disagreed with the statement that  Washington stopped the process under the OSCE Minsk Group  Co-Chairmanship format in the context of the war in Ukraine. When  asked whether this would mean cooperation with Russia, the American  diplomat answered in the affirmative. "Yes. Russia is a co-chair of  the Minsk Group. So, yes. France, the United States and Russia would  continue to work in this format," she said. Moscow called this  statement of the representative of the State Department not sincere.   And already on June 28, the US State Department announced that the  Russian co-chairman did not accept the invitation of Washington and  Paris to discuss the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh.