Russia counts on the soonest launch of the "3+3" format (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia - Russia, Turkey, Iran) on Transcaucasia, but notes the attempts of Western countries, led by the United States, to hinder this process, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We see the desire of a number of Western states, primarily the United States, to hinder some processes, just to put sticks in the wheels of this endeavor," Zakharova said. - "For our part, we are oriented towards the soonest launch of the consultative regional mechanism "3+3" in the interests of all its participants." She said that in its attempts to hinder the launch of the negotiation mechanism the American side is engaged in disinformation attributing the initiative of creating this format to Moscow.
The diplomat recalled that the idea of creating such a mechanism was proposed by presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. "As you know, Russia supported this initiative. We proceed from the fact that the development of multilateral regional cooperation is absolutely in the interests of all participants of this format. And in our opinion, the launch of this mechanism would increase confidence in interstate relations, resolve existing contradictions and unlock economic, transport and humanitarian potential of the region," the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry stressed.
The initiative on the six-party format of cooperation on Karabakh and unblocking of economic and transport communications in the region was put forward earlier by Azerbaijani and Turkish leaders Ilham Aliyev and Tayyip Erdogan. Iran welcomed the idea, assuring that it was ready to promote steps to strengthen peace in the region. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is working with its Armenian counterparts and also expects Georgia to express interest in creating such a mechanism.
On October 8, Georgian deputy prime minister and foreign minister David Zalkaliani said that Tbilisi should be represented in the new negotiation format at least in some way, despite its disagreement with Russia. This statement drew sharp criticism from the opposition.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS