OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Welcome Azerbaijan’s Decision to Postpone Consideration of Its Resolution at UN General Assembly

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke of the United States – released today a statement on the results of the September 6-9 visits to Baku, Yerevan, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenpress reports citing the OSCE official website that the Co-Chairs mentioned in the statement that they presented their work plan for the months ahead during their meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

They stressed that a more constructive approach by all the sides will be needed to be able to implement their plan and to make progress in the months leading up to the OSCE Summit. The Co-Chairs held discussions with all the parties on the previously agreed Field Assessment Mission to the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, which they will conduct between late September and mid-October. They presented the details of their mission. The Co-Chairs will finalize their preparations for the mission in the nearest future. The Co-Chairs again strongly urged the parties to respect the ceasefire regime and exercise restraint on the ground and in their public statements, and called on to end the incursions across the Line of Contact.

While all the parties reconfirmed their commitment to the 1994 ceasefire, the Co-Chairs reiterated that it is crucial that this commitment is carried out in practice. The Co-Chairs, accompanied by Permanent Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and the military authorities of the sides, crossed September 8 the Line of Contact on foot en route to Stepanakert to highlight that the Line of Contact is not to become a permanent barrier between neighboring peoples and to show all the parties that the ceasefire of 1994 must be strictly respected.

This was the first time the mediators had crossed the Line of Contact since November, 2001. The Co-Chairs welcomed the decision by Azerbaijan to postpone consideration of its resolution at the United Nations General Assembly. At the same time they reiterated that the OSCE Minsk Group remains the only framework for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Before returning to the region to carry out the Field Assessment Mission, the Co-Chairs will travel to Washington, D.C. and then to New York to work with the sides on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.