No Ground to Record a Deflection in NKR Conflict in Washington: German Analyst

“Only in case of Aliyev-Sargsyan meeting in Washington a progress may be recorded in the settlement process,” Uwe Halbach, expert at German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), told 168.am, touching upon anticipated Aliyev-Sargsyan meeting within Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) to be held in the USA.

Note, the forth NSS will be held on March 30 and April 1 in Washington, participants of which, upon invitation of the US president Barak Obama, presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan may be found.

A range of Western analysts don’t exclude, that Obama will organize Aliyev-Sargsyan meeting, moreover, he will try to record a breakthrough in the settlement process, on account of the fact, that due to the US Congressmen Royce and Engel the issue of implementation of incident control mechanism on Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line has been set forward.  By the way, the initiative is composed of three main steps, convincing the conflicting parties withdraw snipers from the zone, add the number of OSCE representatives on the contact line, insert technical mechanisms, which will allow to clarify from which party shootings are recorded.

Firstly, Uwe Halbach assessed that it isn’t a new initiative, moreover, with various formulations it has repeatedly been circulated and failed out of miscellaneous reasons.

On the whole, in his words, agreement of the parties will be a big positive signal, as Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains one of the most militarized and hazardous ones of the post-Soviet space, conflicting parties of which continue investing means for defence strengthening and weaponry purchasing.

This tendency, according to Halbach, can’t but direct to a dangerous milestone, on account of Middle East developments in the two countries as well, especially the existent situation in Azerbaijan. To exclude this, in his opinion, international community should seek for ways.

“One of those measures may be this initiative, if adopted, however, as I know, not all the parties and co-chairs agree on investment of that mechanism. If it’s not adopted, the co-chairs, why not, Germany as well, as an OSCE co-chair, should continue seeking for productive measures, as existent proposals don’t seem to be the ones,” Halbach said. As for the meeting in Washington, he positively assessed it.

“However, presently deflection isn’t needed, as I don’t observe any grounds. Yes, there is a positive progress, between local accords, but parallel to it, both parties try to purchase new military equipment, don’t agree on this initiative, Artsakh isn’t a participant of these negotiations, and under these conditions, only progress may be recorded in Washington, parties and co-chairs should work hard towards final settlement of the conflict,” Halbach said.

By Araks Martirosyan