Armenia’s participation at the NATO Warsaw Summit was related to the issues that deal with Afghanistan, more precisely, to our participation in the International Security Assistance Force Mission in Afghanistan. As you know, for seven years Armenia has taken a part of that mission that in 2015 was transformed into the Resolute Support Mission. Within this framework a special session of the NATO member and partner countries was held and this was where Armenia participated.

Obviously, the Summit also provided a good opportunity for holding different meetings, and the President of Armenia had important ones. Just a while ago President Sargsyan had a meeting with his French counterpart Francois Hollande and yesterday evening he met with the US Secretary of State John Kerry. Along with the bilateral relations and many other issues they exchanged views on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process. First and foremost this refers to the agreements reached at the Summit in Vienna and reaffirmed at the St. Petersburg Summit. As it has been mentioned on numerous occasions, the implementation of those agreements will create conducive conditions for the advancement of the peace process. This was the core issue. It is about the creation of the mechanism for investigations. The Co-Chair countries have presented precise proposals. However, Azerbaijan pretends that it does not to know what it is about. The Co-Chair countries have presented quite detailed proposals and Armenia has, in general, reacted with positive opinion on the creation of such mechanism.

It is not the first time. You know, this proposal has been discussed for years. It is the initiative of the Co-Chair countries. As the outcome of the Sochi summits back in 2011 and 2012 relevant statements were issued by the Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, where the necessity of the creation of such mechanisms was specifically reflected. However, each and every time Azerbaijan has backtracked. This time again Azerbaijan tries to make a step back from the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements pretending that there was nothing agreed upon. Although the Co-Chair countries in their statement issued as a result of the Vienna Summit specifically emphasized that the agreement on the creation of such mechanism was reached by the Presidents themselves.

The second agreement refers to the expansion of the team and capacities of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. The scenario is the same: though enough time has passed since Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits, Azerbaijan spares no effort to hinder the implementation of this agreement as well. Those were the main topics of discussions.
The same issues were the subject of my discussions with the Co-Chairs yesterday in Warsaw. I think, we will continue discussions on these agreements to see how it would be possible to implement them.

Anyway, the Co-Chair countries and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the German Foreign Minister, are quite determined on this issue. Mr. Steinmeier said about this during his visit to Armenia, and even before, in January, in his speech at assuming the OSCE Chairmanship he supported the creation of such mechanism. And currently they continue to be firm that the agreements should be respected and implemented. It is impossible to keep agreeing on issues at meetings just to see how one of the sides backtracks from them. This leads to the loss of credibility of that side as a country worth of negotiating with and getting to any agreements at all.

As for NATO, you know that it does not deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement whatsoever. The high level officials of NATO have emphasized this on numerous occasions. Azerbaijan tries to misrepresent as if those formulations, I would say very generic formulations of the NATO Summit declarations on the settlement of conflicts, entail support to its approaches. Of course, it is not the case.

Through it Baku tries to justify its militaristic statements, actions, policy, which contradict the approach of the international community towards the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. As you know, two of the Co-Chair countries - the United States and France, are the members of the North Atlantic Alliance. As Co-Chair countries, together with Russia, they have issued five statements on the level of heads of states precisely reflecting the principles and elements which should serve as a basis for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.

Those are the very statements that Azerbaijan tries to ignore and spares no effort to hinder any reference to those statements, which with some nuances and changes in formulations, continue to stand at the basis of all old and new proposals and ideas . However, the essence of the proposals remains the same and is based on those five statements. And Armenia has stated on numerous occasions that based on those proposals it is ready to continue the efforts together with the Co-Chair countries towards the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.