Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Artsakh
Russia on Thursday accused the United States and its European allies of effectively undermining efforts to find a settlement to the Karabakh conflict and usurping Moscow’s initiatives to advance relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The United States and France have not signaled their readiness to resume the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday in a statement.
“We have not received such signals, and do not even expect it,” said her statement posted on the ministry’s website.
Zakharova accused Washington and Paris of “actually paralyzed the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs by refusing the cooperation with Russia’s involvement.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week said that the U.S. and France, driven by their “Russophobia” have excluded Moscow from the co-charing process, citing the West’s rebuke of Russia over the Ukraine conflict. All three co-chairing countries—Russia, France and the U.S.—have confirmed this through their diplomatic channels but have maintained that the group has a role to play in advancing a settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
In separate visits to Moscow, both Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said Yerevan wants the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to mediate a settlement to the Karabakh conflict and assist in advancing so-called “peace talks” with Azerbaijan.
The Co-chairs of France and U.S., Brice Roquefeuil and Andrew Shofer, visited Yerevan in recent weeks and emphasized the key role their countries are willing to continue to play in the Karabakh settlement process. Meanwhile the Russian co-chair, Igor Khovaev was named the special envoy for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Zakharova went on to accuse Brussels of overtly usurping Russian efforts to advance relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Such coincidences are not accidental,” said Zakharova. “Like the overt attempt by Brussels to make the well-known Russian-Azerbaijani-Armenian high-level agreements (demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, restoration of transport communication) and the agenda proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs last year (urgent humanitarian issues, reparation of a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan) their own.”
“In this context, we reaffirm our unconditional commitment to consistently implement the statements of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of November 9, 2020, January 11, November 26, 2021,” Zakharova emphasized.
“At the same time, we are determined to contribute in every way to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with which we have historically been linked by friendship, allied and partnering relations,” Zakharova said.