NATO PA not to abandon discussions over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly will not abandon the discussions over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, despite calls by the Armenian parliament, the press office of the Assembly reported.

"I don't think that the political leadership of the Assembly would not do it simply because somebody didn't like it, NATO PA press office told Trend. - There has been a political commitment to go ahead and do something on this.

NATO PA has discussed the possibility of introducing a resolution at its next meting in Warsaw in November. And that resolution would be on something related to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Earlier Friday, 'Armenia Today' news agency published an appeal of Armenian parliament's speaker Hovik Abrahamyan to NATO PA head John Taner to refrain from discussions over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "in connection with a possible report on the Karabakh problem, which the NATO PA plans to prepare".

NATO PA press office said there are no preparations and there is no report on Nagorno-Karabakh. However, there are plans to adopt a resolution at the next meting in Warsaw. "They are non-binding policy recommendations based on the deliberations of the members," the same source said.

"Resolution differs from a report that tries to investigate an issue and inform people about a particular situation, NATO PA said. It is just a statement what a collective membership think should be done on a particular situation."

The Parliamentary Assembly issues resolutions every year. These are policy recommendations that are debated by the members and approved by the members.

"There has been a commitment to discuss this issue in Parliamentary Assembly, and a commitment to have some sort of resolution on it. So, I suspect that it will go forward," NATO PA said.

The argument of the speaker of the Armenian parliament was that the discussion over the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement outside the OSCE Minsk Group could harm the negotiating process.

"We had a meeting in Armenia in March, we discussed this issue and we had people from the Minsk Group there. So we do discuss this with them," NATO PA said.

"I don't think it will be our place as a Parliamentary Assembly to interfere with an existing international process like the Minsk Group which has been recognized by international community. I think that what the members would chose is support to Minsk process," said the source.


/Trend/