UN Secretary General António Guterres welcomed the agreement on a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone after talks in Russia and announced by the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Secretary General also welcomed the commitment of Armenia and Azerbaijan to enter into substantive negotiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), through its Minsk Group. France, Russia and the United States chair the OSCE Minsk Process, which promotes the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Despite this, mutual accusations between the two contending countries weaken the hopes placed in the ceasefire. The two countries have been called by the Russian Federation to respect the ceasefire on Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The actors in the field are more than one on this historic conflict. The President Azerbaijan Aliyev said that the peace process could only begin if Turkey was included in the mediation talks, long led by Russia, France and the United States. The Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers agreed over the phone that a peaceful resolution was the only option while there are growing fears that the two great regional powers could be sucked into a conflict that is being fought near the Azerbaijani pipelines that transport gas and oil to international markets.
