Russian Foreign Ministry on strengthening the OSCE monitoring mission in Karabakh

Moscow/01.02.18/Turan: At a traditional briefing in the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, the official representative of this agency, commented on Russia's role on "possible" strengthening the monitoring activity of the OSCE mission on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Russia, together with other co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group for the Nagorno Karabakh is actively advocating a reduction in tensions on the contact line and is making efforts to expand the OSCE observer mission in the conflict zone. This topic, in particular, was devoted to a significant part of the meeting of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in St. Petersburg (June 2016.) It was discussed during the visit of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov to Baku and Yerevan last November. Within the OSCE, several versions of the document regulating the activities of additional observers were prepared.

At the meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries, organized by the "troika" of the co-chairs held in Krakow on January 18, the parties were provided with updated proposals.

The ministers agreed in principle on the document prepared by the mediators. There remain some technical details that the parties have yet to agree on before the expansion mechanism is launched," she said. -02D-