Russia is confident that the issue of the return of prisoners captured as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be resolved in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at a meeting with acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Lavrov noted that Russia, together with the other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - France and the United States - "continues to advocate the resolution of all humanitarian issues, including the completion of the return of detainees."
"We understand the symbolic, emotional significance of this step and we are confident that we will be able to resolve this problem in the near future. This will create a positive, constructive atmosphere for moving forward on all other final settlement issues. We will help in every possible way to solve these issues in all forms and formats through the realization of trilateral statements. We will do our best to promote the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group in order to create the most positive atmosphere for settlement of all the remaining issues," he said.
The Minister stressed that Russia supports the activities of the trilateral working group of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan at the level of deputy prime ministers, which deals with "practically significant, maybe even the most significant at this stage issues of unblocking the economic and transport communications, which will allow to practically end the blockade and to ensure mutually beneficial cooperation of all countries of the region."
"We will continue the efforts of our peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. Our peacekeepers will do everything to solve the remaining issues connected with the determination of the exact line of contact, with the provision of mutually beneficial agreements on its passing. Of course, delimitation and demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be possible as soon as all these steps are realized," Lavrov concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS