After Talks In Baku, Yerevan, U.S. Caucasus Envoy Bono Will Stop In Paris, Brussels

Washington D.C./11.10.23/Turan:  U.S. Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono is currently in the region on "one of his routine trips to discuss U.S. support for the peace process," as the State Department put it on Tuesday, TURAN's Washington correspondent.

"On these trips, [Mr Bono] speaks regularly with several key stakeholders," a State Department Spokesperson told TURAN.

Bono was in Baku on Monday, and in Yerevan on Tuesday, and "will stop in Paris and Brussels on his way back [to the USA]," the spokesperson told TURAN's Washington correspondent.

This is Mr. Bono's second trip to the region in the past month.

His visit came just as Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Tuesday that the West "imposes its mediation service" on Armenia and Azerbaijan in order to support its geopolitical ambitions, not for peace.

According to Lavrov's latest piece published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website, Washington and Brussels, by "interfering" in the situation in Karabakh, "are bringing destabilization to the South Caucasus.”

TURAN's Washington correspondent on Tuesday asked for the State Department's reaction to Lavrov's comments.

"Well, that’s absolutely not true," spokesperson Matthew Miller said during his daily press briefing.

He went on to elaborate, "Our only goal in the South Caucasus, in the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan, is to ensure a lasting peace and stability and of course to ensure that the humanitarian needs and rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are protected."

Alex Raufoglu