By Heghine Buniatian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — The United States is willing to continue to cooperate with Russia in facilitating a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, US Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried insisted over the weekend.
The US, Russia and France have for decades jointly tried to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord in their capacity as the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group. According to Russian officials, Washington and Paris stopped working with Moscow in the Minsk Group format following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Donfried denied this as she visited Armenia on the last leg of her tour of the three South Caucasus states.
“The US has continued to say that we support the Minsk Group co-chair process,” she told RFE / RL’s Armenian Service in an interview. “We continue to believe that it is a very important format, particularly on Nagorno-Karabakh, and it is essential that we keep various formats in play to try to advance peace. And we will continue to do that going forward. “
Asked whether Washington is ready for fresh contacts with Moscow for that purpose, Donfried said: “Yes. Russia is a Minsk Group co-chair. France, the US and Russia would continue in that format.”
