The proposal to deploy a mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is still relevant, and it can be deployed in case Yerevan is interested. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this in an interview with TV journalist Dmitry Kiselev on Thursday.
"The fact that the CSTO has prepared a plan to deploy a peacekeeping operation [on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan] in this difficult situation was, I believe, a very important achievement. That proposal is still on the table. And if our Armenian allies, friends are still interested in it, this mission can be deployed in literally one or two days," Lavrov said.
He stressed that the plan was prepared quite a long time ago, although the Armenian side did not rush it. "As a result, we finalized the text of the relevant decision at the summit in Yerevan. But our Armenian colleagues said that they would need this solution only if it would categorically condemn the actions of Azerbaijan. Not everyone was ready for this," Lavrov said, noting that it is particularly connected with the fact that the history of the Karabakh conflict stretches back for decades.
Lavrov also said that Russia had proposed many ways of solving the conflict through diplomacy. Lavrov reminded that both Armenia and Azerbaijan had signed a document with the EU about their readiness to sign a peace treaty under the conditions stipulated in the 1991 Alma-Ata Protocol.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS