President of European Council: The EU gives high priority to Karabakh conflict settlement

• Wednesday, July 4, 22:51

The European Union gives high priority to the Karabakh conflict settlement, President of the European Council, H.E. Herman Van Rompuy said at today's joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan.  

He thinks that only a peaceful settlement can change the status quo and establish peace and stability in the region. He said that the EU confirms the recent statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in Los Cabos. 

To recall, on June 18 the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, Barack Obama, Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin, issued a joint statement during the G-20 Summit in Mexico. The three presidents urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to fulfill their promise and work toward progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process. The statement said that "Military force will not resolve the conflict and would only prolong the suffering
and hardships endured by the peoples of the region for too long. Only a peaceful, negotiated settlement can allow the entire region to move beyond the status quo toward a secure and prosperous future".

He pointed out that the conflicting parties should respect the ceasefire and abstain from military rhetoric.  He added that the Karabakh conflict settlement needs mutual confidence of the parties and inadmissibility of incidents on the line of contact.  

To note, the OSCE Minsk Group represented by co-chairs from Russia, the U.S. and France has been trying to resolve the Karabakh conflict since 1992.