"I am appointing Louis L. Bono, a member of the Senior Foreign Service, as Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday afternoon, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
In this capacity, Mr. Bono will work with regional leaders to advance the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan and to address Russia’s ongoing occupation of sovereign Georgian territory.
Mr. Bono brings a wealth of multilateral and bilateral experience to the position, having served as Acting Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Offices in
Vienna and Chargė d’Affaires, and interim to the Holy See.
He has also served as Director of the Basrah Regional Office, on the National Security Council, and as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of State and to the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. He is retired from the Army Reserves, where he was an instructor at West Point and the Army War College.
"The United States is committed to helping Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiate a comprehensive peace agreement, including a long-term political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Blinken said.
"Mr. Bono will engage bilaterally, with likeminded partners, including the European Union, and with international organizations, such as the OSCE, to facilitate direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
His appointment also reaffirms the importance the United States places on Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the role of the Geneva International Discussions on Georgia, the only international format addressing Russia’s ongoing occupation of 20 percent of Georgia’s territory," the Secretary noted.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Politics
-
The agreement reached at the COP29 climate summit has been hailed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as a critical step in global efforts to combat climate change. Speaking after the conclusion of high-stakes negotiations, Guterres emphasized that the agreement is pivotal for maintaining the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, a threshold considered crucial to preventing the worst impacts of climate change.
-
On 23 November at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, eco-activists from different countries held a protest action against the failure of countries to agree on climate finance.
-
On the eve of the closing of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has drawn attention to the criminal cases of journalists detained in Azerbaijan.
-
Negotiations at the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku have been extended until November 24, a source in the UNFCCC Secretariat told the Turan news agency. According to the source, participants aim to finalize and sign the concluding documents by that date.
Leave a review