Lavrov Comments on Pashinyan's Statements Regarding Russian Peacekeepers

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, commented on Nikol Pashinyan's statements and addressed the question of whether there is a need for a separate memorandum regarding the mandate of Russian peacekeeping forces. He stated:  “It is difficult for me to answer this question because we have not seen specific proposals that the Prime Minister of Armenia wants to discuss in the context of the Russian contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. Accordingly, I cannot guess. Each party, of course, is entitled to present additional initiatives, but we have not yet seen any proposals.”

Nikol Pashinyan noted: “There are a number of institutional issues related to this topic. In particular, it is explicitly stated in the third point of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, that there is a contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh along which the Russian peacekeeping forces are deployed. This area is referred to as the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. We expect that any attempts to cross the contact line will be halted by the Russian peacekeeping contingent, and the Azerbaijani forces within the contact line will be withdrawn.”

Returning to the topic of the mandate of Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed the opinion that the signature of Armenia and Russia is sufficient for the complete implementation of that mandate. “If not, then it is necessary to take measures to internationally affirm that mandate or endow the peacekeepers with a wider international mandate. I do not want to disclose too many working details now, but these issues have concerned us since November 2020, and we have made efforts to achieve specific solutions, and now those efforts need to be doubled and tripled,” said Nikol Pashinyan.