Co-Chairs Urge Parties to Negotiate - Hoagland

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group held a very important meeting in Baku with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as well as detailed discussions with Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

This was announced by the American co-chairman Richard Hoagland at a press conference in Baku on March 11.

The main message of the co-chairs was the importance of the return of the parties to high-level talks. "We stressed that the anniversary of the April 2016 battles should be noted not at the front, but at the negotiating table. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs consider that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has no military solution.

This message will be delivered by the co-chairs to the leadership of Armenia next week," Hoagland said. After the talks in Yerevan, the co-chairs will make a joint statement.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting at the Presidents' level in the near future, the American diplomat answered that he hoped to hold such a meeting. "But now I cannot name specific dates," Hoagland said.

At the same time, he noted that Russia has now assumed the leading role in the mediation. "We are very pleased that the co-chairing states are coming from a unified position," Hoagland said.

Asked why the United States does not take the lead, Hoagland responded: "If you make an excursion into history, you can recall that the co-chairing countries periodically took the lead. I remember that the US played the leading role at one time, Secretary of State Colin Powell made statements. Then this role passed to France. And now, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov makes statements and the Russian President expresses his attitude. Along with this, the three states, including Russia, note the importance of diplomatic activity. As I understand it, the reality is that the problem is very complex and multilayered," Hoagland said.

 On the question of how successful diplomatic efforts can be, while military rhetoric is growing on both sides, tensions are exacerbating on the front, and there is intensive arming of the armies, Hoagland noted that indeed in the past 25 years the conflict has not been resolved peacefully. "However, as a result of diplomatic activities, many tragic events were prevented. The result of diplomatic activity is to reach a mutually acceptable settlement that suits both sides. The co-chair countries will continue their diplomatic activities. They will try to reach the time when the parties have reached useful results," Hoagland said.

 How consistent is Armenia's will to resolve the conflict?

Answering this question, the diplomat said: "We will test the political will of the Armenian leadership regarding the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict next week."

According to Hoagland, both sides resort to military rhetoric and this is more intended for the internal audience.

Hoagland refrained from answering the question about expanding the office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and increasing the number of observers, noting that this was a subject of talks and therefore he did not want to express an opinion.

 "I can note that at the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg, documents were adopted about this. They provide for mutual confidence building. It is very important to increase mutual trust and the possibilities of its influence," Hoagland said. -03D06--