The issue of the meeting in Moscow of the heads of foreign ministries of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is being worked out, Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, reported at a briefing on Thursday.
"Various schemes of action are being worked out," she noted. - Among other things, we have proposed to provide a Moscow platform for the organization of a meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. We are consulting with the parties on possible timeframes for starting negotiations in this format".
"The Russian Federation, both in its national capacity and within the OSCE Minsk Group, continues its active mediation efforts," the diplomat continued. - "They are aimed at an immediate cessation of hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and the resumption of the peace negotiation process on the basis of the existing basic principles and relevant international documents".
According to her, evidence of the unity of approaches of Russia, the United States and France was the joint statements of the presidents of the three countries - co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on October 1 and the foreign ministers of those countries on October 5. The official representative of the diplomatic mission also drew attention to the fact that the RF President discussed the situation by phone with the Armenian Prime Minister on October 2, 5 and 7 and the Azerbaijani President on October 7.
"Sergey Lavrov [the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry] is still in constant contact with his colleagues - ministers of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia," Zakharova added.
Meeting of Lavrov and Armenian Foreign Minister
Russian Foreign Minister will discuss the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on October 12 in Moscow.
Mnatsakanyan's official visit to Moscow is expected on October 11-13. "As part of the high-ranking guest's visit, the Foreign Ministers of our countries will hold talks at the Russian Foreign Ministry, during which Sergey Lavrov and his colleague will discuss international issues and regional security issues. Obviously, the focus will be on the extremely difficult situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone," Zakharova said.
"Russia, both in its national capacity and within the OSCE Minsk Group, is consistently making every effort to achieve an immediate ceasefire and create conditions for the resumption of the negotiation process," the diplomat stressed.
According to Zakharova, the parties will consider a wide range of issues of multifaceted bilateral cooperation, cooperation through the EAEC, CSTO, CIS, coordination of positions in international organizations such as the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, BSEC and other structures.
She also noted that allied relations between the countries are characterized by intensive political dialogue at the highest and high levels, effective inter-parliamentary contacts, constructive exchanges through ministries and agencies.
"We expect that the official visit of the Armenian Foreign Minister to Moscow will give an additional impetus to the development of mutually beneficial Russian-Armenian interaction and will contribute to the strengthening of security and stability in Transcaucasia," concluded the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS
Based on materials from TASS