Armenia’s Defense Minister discusses situation on border with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs

Armenia’s Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan received today the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, Andrew Schofer and Stéphane Visconti, who are in Armenia on a regional visit. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meeting.

The meeting was aimed at exchanging views on the current situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border and on the line of contact of armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan.

The minister attached significance to the establishment of the operative communication by Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in October 2018. The minister drew the interlocutors’ attention to the large-scale military drills held by Azerbaijan in May without notifying the international community in advance and the ceasefire violations that have become more frequent recently.

Tonoyan noted that in spite of these negative trends, Armenia continues to support unconditional maintenance of the ceasefire regime, the prevention of incidents and the implementation of measures aimed at reducing risks in order to exclude all types of provocations.

The defense minister added that the Armed Forces of Armenia and the Defense Army of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) are seriously following the situation and overseeing any movement of the adversary.