The commission for foreign affairs of the European Parliament has received a document on Armenia with a proposal to replace the French mandate in the OSCE Minsk Group with the EU mandate. The document will be voted on at a plenary session in a month.
Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of the Yerevan Institute of the Caucasus, is skeptical about the replacement happening. He told Vestnik Kavkaza that the statement of foreign ministers of co-chair states of the OSCE MG with urges for signing of a framework agreement between sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a method of work at the group. It needs to demonstrate progress.
Vestnik Kavkaza reported that US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Robert Bradtke made a special statement on the 20th anniversary of the organization. He said that the sides are about to settle the conflict.
Russian co-chair Igor Popov said that the process is intensive. Discussions of the basic principles to settle the conflict will become the basis for a peace treaty. Russia, the US and France are the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Leaders of the states said at the G8 summit in Deauville last year that use of force may cause confrontation and instability in the region.
