France wants to initiate talks between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan with the support of the international community, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 28th April, 2023) France wants to initiate talks between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan with the support of the international community, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday.

"We want negotiations to begin – with support of the international community – between the representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani authorities around the content of the population's rights and guarantees. This implies that favorable conditions must be created for the negotiations, namely around the issue of restoring free movement along Lachin Corridor," she said in an interview with the Armenpress news agency.

Colonna noted that France will support any decision that will allow the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh to continue living there "safely, by preserving its history, heritage and culture," adding that "it is their inalienable right."

The French foreign minister also condemned the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, as unacceptable. She believes it can potentially cause an economic and humanitarian crises in the region.

"It is also obstructing the continuation of the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, to which (Armenian) Prime Minister (Nikol) Pashinyan is decisively committed to, and it poses a serious threat to regional stability, which is already deeply impacted by the current geopolitical context," she said.

Besides, the minister recalled that the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) a few weeks ago ruled that Baku should take available measures to ensure unimpeded movement through the corridor, adding that this decision is "binding for everyone" and "must be respected."

"In this regard, the decision by Azerbaijan to install a checkpoint at the entrance of the new road in Lachin Corridor is deeply concerning, as noted by the European Union and the United States," Colonna said.

Additionally, the official said that, in the context of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the goal of France and the EU is to restore peace, and only a peace agreement will really solve all the issues.

On Sunday, the Azerbaijani State Border Service said its units had set up a border checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, the only land route linking Armenia and the Armenian-dominated Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku explained the decision by the alleged illegal use of the road by Armenia and security threats, noting that the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the Russian-Turkish monitoring center were informed about this. Yerevan protested Baku's move, stressing that it was against both the 2020 trilateral declaration and the ICJ's ruling.

The decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh flared up again in September 2020, marking the worst escalation since the 1990s. Hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered trilateral declaration of ceasefire signed in November 2020. The two former Soviet countries agreed to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region. Occasional clashes have since occurred on the border.

Last year, Yerevan and Baku, with the mediation of Russia, the United States and the European Union, began discussing a future peace treaty.