Official statement: OSCE MG Co-Chairs strongly urged all parties to respect the ceasefire

OKThe Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Igor Popov  of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States strongly urged all parties to respect the cease-fire, OSCE Minsk Group's official statement says.

While all parties reconfirmed their commitment to the 1994 cease-fire, the Co-Chairs reiterated that it is critical that this commitment is carried out in practice. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs travelled to Baku, Yerevan, and Nagorno-Karabakh September 6-9.

On September 8, with the facilitation of the Permanent Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and the military authorities of all sides, the Co-Chairs crossed the Line of Contact (LoC) on foot, en route to Stepanakert/Khankhendi, to highlight that the LoC is not to become a permanent barrier between neighboring peoples and to demonstrate to all parties that the ceasefire of 1994 must be strictly respected. This marked the first time the mediators have crossed the LoC since November 2001.

The Co-Chairs held discussions with all parties regarding the previously agreed Field Assessment Mission to the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, which they will conduct between late September and mid-October. They presented the elements of their mission, and they will finalize their preparations for the mission in the nearest future.
The Co-Chairs welcomed the decision by Azerbaijan to postpone consideration of its resolution in the United Nations General Assembly. At the same time they reiterated that the OSCE Minsk Group remains the sole framework for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Before they return to the region to carry out the Field Assessment Mission, the Co-Chairs will travel to Washington, D.C. and then to New York to work with the sides on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, as they had previously announced.


/Trend/