Yerevan /Mediamax/. Chair of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin suggests restoring regular meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
Karasin, who served as Deputy FM and oversaw South Caucasus for many years, has said in the interview to “Kommersant” newspaper that “the main issues now are humanitarian ones: completing the exchange of POWs, returning the bodies and the refugees, and creating proper living conditions for the refugees.”
“The issue of de-mining of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions is urgent. Of course, a lot depends on how quickly trust can be established between the sides. Concrete steps have been made. Discussion of political matters and search for solutions is underway at the initiative of the Russian President. The trilateral commission, which deals with economic, transportation and logistics, works intensively at the level of Deputy PMs,” said Karasin.
Commenting on the prospects of engaging OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in these processes, he said:
“I believe they could play a useful role in these efforts. The co-chairs have experience and significant global support. I think we could restore the practice of regular meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, which would get substantial international response.”
Grigory Karasin has urged not to equal the Karabakh conflict with the Transnistria settlement, noting that “the ethnic, confessional and geographic parameters are too different.”