Armenia issues interpretative statement on OSCE  Minsk closure

ArmInfo.  At the 1533rd meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the OSCE,  delivered Armenia's  interpretative statement  regarding the Ministerial Council decision  on the Closure of the OSCE Minsk Process, Personal Representative of  the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on the Conflict Dealt,  and the  High-Level Planning Group, as reported by the press service of the  Armenian Foreign Ministry. The statement reads as follows:

"In connection with the adoption of the Ministerial Council Decision  on the Closure of the OSCE Minsk Process, Personal Representative of  the OSCE Chairperson in Office on the Conflict Dealt with by the OSCE  Minsk Conference and the High-Level Planning Group, the delegation of  Armenia would like to make the following interpretative statement  under paragraph IV.1(A)6 of the OSCE Rules of Procedure.  Armenia,  together with Azerbaijan, initiated the adoption of this Decision  based on the Joint Appeal by Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the  Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan to the OSCE  Chairperson-in-Office signed in Washington D.C. on 08 August 2025.   On the same day the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan  initialled the agreed upon text of the Agreement on Establishment of  Peace and Inter-State Relations between the Republic of Armenia and  the Republic of Azerbaijan.  The initialization was witnessed by the  Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the President of the  Republic of Azerbaijan and the President of the United States of  America, who also signed a Joint Declaration.

The Joint Declaration acknowledged the 'need to chart a course for a  bright future not bound by the conflict of the past, consistent with  the Charter of the United Nations and the 1991 Almaty Declaration.'  It affirmed that the conditions have been created 'to finally embark  on building good neighborly relations on the basis of the  inviolability of international borders and the inadmissibility of the  use of force for the acquisition of territory after the conflict that  brought immense human suffering.' It further stated that this  'reality, which is not and should never be subject to revision, paves  the way for closing the chapter of enmity between our two nations.'

In this environment the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and  Azerbaijan jointly appealed to close the Minsk Process structures of  the OSCE, since they 'are no longer relevant in view of cardinal  changes in the situation that called for their establishment.' The  Ministers also confirmed their 'shared commitment to the UN Charter  and the Helsinki Final Act to continue the normalization process at  the bilateral level.' In the context of this historic momentum the  Republic of Armenia looks forward to the timely signing and  ratification of the Peace Agreement."