“The biggest result was the meeting of the Minsk Group co-chairs and the Armenian Foreign Minister in September, which was followed by the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Co-Chairs reaffirmed that they are acting within the framework of their mandate,” Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgyan (pictured) stated on Thursday during the preliminary discussions of the 2022 state budget in the NA standing committees, answering Anna Grigoryan’s question from the Armenia alliance regarding what steps the Armenian side has initiated towards restarting negotiations.
“It is very important to record it at this stage. We continue our efforts in this direction, and I think there will be new meetings in the near future. Conditions will be created for the full establishment of the peace process,” Vahe Gevorgyan added.
The deputy also asked what position Armenia has on the 3 + 3 regional format. The Deputy Minister answered, “Recently, we are witnessing that there are processes of regionalization in international politics. If at one time we could ensure our security with world players, now regional players are emerging and world players remain in their place. In other words, three-level formats are created: world players and regional players. There are several proposals for regional cooperation and “3 + 3” is one of them. We must adopt a common position towards everyone without having a positive or negative bias towards any proposal. The priority for us is the interests of the Republic of Armenia and the calculation of dangers and risks.”
According to the official, “The most important general approach is that all regional cooperation organizations should not copy the already existing formats. It is a priority for us not to have any copy with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. All the proposals are being considered and at this moment it is too early to talk about any decision.” Anna Grigoryan noted that “3 + 3” creates a basis for the Turkish factor to significantly increase in the region. “Why haven’t we clarified our position so far when the other players are already expressing their position?” In response, Vahe Gevorgyan noted, “The topic is very new. There is a need for analyzing risks and dangers, so we are considering all the proposals based on the above-mentioned principles.”
Read also
Luiza Sukiasyan
