JOINT DECLARATION OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTER OF FRANCE, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH

ArmInfo
2008-12-04 16:14:00

ArmInfo. The foreign ministers and deputy minister of OSCE Minsk
Group Co-chair countries – France, Russia, and the United States –
have come out with a joint statement on Nagorno- Karabakh.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry press-service quotes them as stating:
"We, the Foreign Ministers and Deputy Minister of the OSCE Minsk
Group’s Co- Chair countries – France, Russia, and the United States –
call on the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to build on the
positive momentum established during the meeting of the Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on November 2, 2008. The Moscow
Declaration signed that same day opened a new and promising phase in
our shared endeavor to expand peace in the South Caucasus. In that
declaration, the Presidents reaffirm their commitment to advancing a
peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the framework
of the Basic Principles developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in
collaboration with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis
of their proposals advanced last year in Madrid. We call on the parties
to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic Principles in coming
months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive peace settlement
as outlined by those agreed principles. In keeping with the Moscow
Declaration, we call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to
develop confidence-building measures, beginning with pulling back
snipers from the Line of Contact to save lives of innocent civilians
and soldiers as our mediators already proposed to the sides at the
highest level during the last visit mid November. It is urgent for
the parties to work with each other, the Co-Chairs, and the Personal
Representative of the Chairman in Office to stabilize the ceasefire
through this and other measures. We reiterate our firm view that there
is no military solution to the conflict and call on the parties to
recommit to a peaceful resolution".