TODAY.AZ / Politics

FM: OSCE sees Russia as key player in conflict resolution in Europe

18 January 2017 [15:19] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Rashid Shirinov

Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, whose country assumed this year's rotating chairmanship of the OSCE, said the organization needed Russia to support its endeavors, Sputnik reported.

"Russia can play a decisive role in fostering constructive dialogue to peacefully resolve the current crises,” he said.

"Russia can help ensure the OSCE’s ability to deal with the challenges facing the participating states by supporting measures to give it sufficient resources to fulfill its wide-ranging mandate.”

The Austrian minister will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on January 18.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Transnistria are among topics of the meeting.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/157811.html

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