Konstantin Kosachev: "The work of the Diplomatic Club can accelerate the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict"

On June 1st  Moscow hosted the opening ceremony of the Diplomatic Club at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, spoke about the significance of the Diplomatic Club in the modern Russian foreign policy.

- What function should perform the Diplomatic Club?

- I really liked the way our minister Sergei Lavrov characterized the mission of the new Diplomatic Club. He said that the Diplomatic Club was intended to become another major ‘soft power’ in Russia. He had by this in mind the human relations, which certainly should arise between the leaders of the states, between the parliamentarians and between the diplomats and politicians. We can work without them, but it is much more difficult.

When there is a confidence and willingness to talk to each other openly, without fear that you can be interpreted differently somehow, this, as they say, is worth a lot. Because such trusting contacts that are aimed at understanding each other help, eventually, to develop some joint decisions, a real big politics and a big real diplomacy develops from them.

It seems to me this Diplomatic Club will always be a very good opportunity for diplomats and foreign ambassadors, who work here, to talk directly, not in the official offices, with a cup of tea with a minister, deputy minister, heads of relevant departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with representatives of other ministries and agencies, and, I hope, parliamentarians, because we too are the part of diplomacy, even in the public parliamentary dimension. We also want to contribute to solving of today’s the most acute problems.

- Is the Club able to influence the decision of the territorial issues such as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

- Of course, everybody now talks about Nagorno Karabakh, where the situation suddenly escalated after the conflict, seemed to be finally transferred to the frozen stage. We all understand that the frozen stage is not a solution, but at least the blood was not spilled. And suddenly it has been spilled again.

I admit that this situation took Russia by surprise, we were not prepared, there were no signs of a dramatic development of the situation. Russia has made every effort to ensure that this situation could come back as quickly as possible into a state where at least there is no bloodshed. And I think that a very large role has been played by the personal relationships of our president with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, our Minister of Foreign Affairs with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, our defense minister with  the Armenian and Azerbaijani  Defense Ministers to solve this situation quickly. If there had been a standard exchange of the diplomatic notes, we would not have accomplished  the minimum acceptable task to solve the problem so quickly. The time has not yet come to solve the maximum possible tasks. Maybe it will come a little faster, when we start to work within our Diplomatic Club.