Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Lavrov. (Source: Armenpress)
MOSCOW (Armenpress) — No document officially exists over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement that has led to a solution, according to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. There have been a number of proposals initiated by the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which did not lead to any conflict settlement and currently are kept by the OSCE Secretary General.
While commenting on the journalist’s remark that mentioned the alleged existence of a group of documents regarding the conflict settlement titled “Lavrov proposals”, he clarified that the documents are neither his nor someone else’s.
“There are a number of proposals which were prepared by the Co-chairs during different phases of negotiations over Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. They were prepared when there were talks that there it was necessity to prepare a document clarifying the key principles of the negotiations as the first step and afterwards, based on those principles, peace truce, which would be legally binding instead of having political nature,” said Lavrov.
He also added that, “Different options of that document which underwent evolution during 2007-2011 were handed over to OSCE Secretary General by the Co-chairs and they are now kept in the vault of that organization. Those are the only papers that can be regarded as documents. None of those officially existing documents have led to any practical solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”
When discussing Russia’s impact in the conflict, he said, “As you know, the Russian side has made efforts since 2010, when Dmitry Medvedev was the President, to find a solution to the issue which has not been agreed by the sides yet. And that policy helped the situation progress in some sense, but later quite a long interruption occurred, after which, in June 2011, reaching an agreement over the key principles failed at Kazan summit.”
“Afterwards, when President Putin was reelected, he met with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and we attempted to make additional efforts aimed at the solution of the conflict by the assignment of the three presidents. Searches for a solution to the problem are now conducted on the level of ideas and sonorous thoughts. I have had a number of meetings with my Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and we have discussed all that with the American and French Co-chairs as well. No other documents, except those kept at the OSCE, do not exist. The rest are searches,” Lavrov said.
Source: Asbarez
Link: Russian Foreign Minister Clarifies ‘Lavrov Proposals’ Regarding Nagorno-Karabakh Settlement