Armenia and Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministers to Meet

With the mediation of the OSCE's current chairman, a meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan's foreign ministers is set to take place soon in Bratislava. The parties will discuss the prospects for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This was stated by Miroslav Lajčák, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovakia's Foreign Minister, in an interview with Voice of America.

"I expect to host both foreign ministers in Bratislava in the near future," he said. According to the chairperson, he highly appreciates the efforts made by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan towards conflict resolution. "This year, we have seen positive signals, dialogue between the leaders as well as dialogue at the ministerial level. At the same time, there have been concerning incidents along the contact line that resulted in human losses. However, the situation now appears to be stable," he noted.

From his side, the OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger emphasized in a conversation with Voice of America that the mediators, represented by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, continue to be actively involved in the negotiations. Significant progress, however, is possible only with a political decision from the heads of state. "Certainly, the positive atmosphere, the positive dynamics we saw in September during the meeting in Dushanbe has not yet transformed into real progress towards resolving the conflict," he added.

This week, senior OSCE representatives participated in a conference organized at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. Referring to the role of international organizations in conflict prevention, Miroslav Lajčák particularly emphasized the importance of political decisions. "Political decisions are made by leaders, heads of state, and ministers. This is when effective discussions are possible; without that, discussions become bureaucratic exercises. We can work at the ambassadorial level, but political decisions are on an entirely different level."