Mediamax, Armenia
June 22 2018
Armenian FM calls for arms-race-free region
[Armenian News note: the below is translated from the Russian edition of Mediamax]
22 June 2018: Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has said that the EU and Eastern Partnership countries should refrain from actions that lead to arms race in the region.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the minister made the statement last week in Minsk at an unofficial meeting of the foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership countries, which was also attended by the European commissioner for European neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn.
"The EU members and the countries of the Easter Partnership should strictly refrain from any actions that lead to arms race in the region and impede the peace process or damage agreed formats of negotiations," Mnatsakanyan said.
The minister also noted that "tensions on the contact line between Artsakh [Azerbaijan's breakaway Karabakh] and Azerbaijan and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and hampering people-to-people contacts should be strongly renounced".
Armenia is ready to assume highest responsibility and become involved in ensuring safety, stability, and prosperity of the region with the EU, members of the European Commission, and partner countries," the foreign minister stressed.
Speaking about the first session of the EU-Armenia Partnership Council held in Brussels on 21 June, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan noted that the meeting made it possible to assess in practice the current level of partnership and outline future priorities.
As regards foreign policy priorities of the government, the minister noted that Armenia pursued the policy of continued, predictable, and close engagement with all friendly countries and partners on the basis of equal partnership.
BBCM note: News.am quoted Mnatsakanyan as saying in Minsk that the status and security of Nagorno-Karabakh was a main priority of the Armenian government. He reconfirmed Armenia's commitment to peaceful settlement of the conflict within the format of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which, along with seven surrounding districts, came under the control of Armenian troops in the early 1990s. Dozens of Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers were killed during an outbreak of fighting between the two sides in April 2016, the worst escalation since cease-fire deal was signed in 1994. Peace talks between Baku and Yerevan have been mediated by France, Russia, and the United States in their capacity of co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.