Prime Minister Expresses Concerns to ICRC Representatives Regarding Work Volume

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), led by Ms. Clare Lauterbach, head of the ICRC delegation in Armenia.

The Prime Minister expressed his concerns regarding the volume of work associated with ensuring the return of captives, the search for missing persons, and the recovery of bodies. Pashinyan emphasized the need to increase ICRC resources, including human resources, and noted that the Armenian government is also ready to invest all efforts to facilitate a more effective and rapid implementation of these activities.

The Prime Minister highlighted the importance of receiving regular information from ICRC representatives regarding the condition, health, and detention conditions of captives.

Ms. Clare Lauterbach provided the Prime Minister with detailed information about the progress of their work and information about meetings with Armenian captives. The head of the ICRC delegation in Armenia expressed satisfaction with the cooperation of the authorities in Artsakh, including the Defense Army, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, and Russian peacekeepers.

At the same time, in terms of daily operations for finding missing persons and bodies, Ms. Lauterbach particularly emphasized the importance of the map provided by the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, which indicated specific areas, thereby increasing the effectiveness of search operations.

She noted that obstacles to the quicker implementation of search operations include the presence of mined areas as well as adverse weather conditions.

During the meeting, the parties discussed effective cooperation on the aforementioned issues and addressed several questions related to the process of prisoner exchanges.