New foreign policy outline commits Russia to further Karabakh mediation
The new concept of Russia's foreign policy envisages the country's further mediation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Foreign Ministry's website said on Tuesday.
The concept, which was approved by President Vladimir Putin on February 12, 2013, lays out a system of views on the basic principles, priorities, goals and tasks of Moscow's foreign political course.
According to the outline, Russia will continue to be closely involved in the political and diplomatic settlement of the conflicts in the CIS area, contribute to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in cooperation with other states, such as the mediating OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairing countries, and on the basis of the principles set out in the joint statements of the presidents of Russia, the United States and France, made in 2009-2011.
Mediators from Russia, as well as the U.S. and France, have long been working to broker a solution of the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh dispute through the Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two South Caucasus countries fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on a pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions.