No alternative to Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format on NK conflict: Lavrov

There is no alternative to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship format on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Moscow on February 22.

“The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan supported this in the documents signed by them. OSCE all members also supported this cochairmanship format,” Lavrov said. He assured that the co-chairs are not doomed to inactivity.

“The co-chairs have always supported intensifying and accelerating the negotiation process which was expressed in trilateral documents constantly released by them.

A similar document was adopted during the recent Munich Security Conference which clearly states that the use of force, the military rhetoric within the frames of conflict settlement are unacceptable and emphasizes the necessity to fully implement the St. Petersburg and Vienna agreements,” Lavrov concluded.