The OSCE Minsk Group urges Yerevan and Baku to promote confidence-building measures, OSCE Minsk Group US co-chair James Warlick said today.
“We are interested in any steps that can build trust and confidence, bring people together. Of course, there are some government-to-government things that we would welcome and would like to see happen, but also we have non-governmental approaches. So when we see there are opportunities for Armenians and Azerbaijanis to meet and interact wherever, we welcome that. We also hope that Armenian athletes will be able to participate in the Baku European Games, because we believe that such people-to-people events would be helpful in the future,” the Armenian Mediamax agency cited Warlick as saying.
According to Warlick, he understands that this is not easy to do and sometimes things go wrong. "But we can’t let that stand in the way. People-to-people contacts are going to be important for really having a lasting settlement. When the day comes, and it will come, that there is a signed agreement that brings a peace in Nagorno Karabakh, it will be a great day not only for Armenia and Azerbaijan, but for the entire region. But it cannot be only a signature on a piece of paper, there has to be more, something that supports it, underpins the peace, and that’s what we need to be working on,” he stressed.
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs James Warlick (USA), Igor Popov (Russia) anf Pierre Andre (France) were on a visit to Azerbaijan on February 15-16, and to Armenia – on February 17. Then it is planned to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
