YEREVAN. – Serbia, as the current Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) chairing country, supports the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

Serbian Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić stated the aforesaid at Wednesday’s joint news conference, in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, with Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan of Armenia.

Gašić also stressed that Serbia supports the Madrid Principles—which refer to one of the proposed peace settlements of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—presented by the co-chairs.

Ohanyan, for his part, reflected on the Turkish air force’s shooting down a Russian warplane—which was taking part in the antiterrorism operations in Syria—on the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday, and noted: “At the moment, when the international community’s attention is focused on combating international terrorism, such actions are a blow to these efforts.”

To the query on what Armenia needs to do if the situation in the region become tenser as a result of this incident, the defense minister recalled that Armenia and Russia are strategic partners and this specifies their bilateral relations. 

At the same time, however, the Armenian defense minister urged to wait for further developments, and added that appropriate actions will be taken.

Seyran Ohanyan also stressed that the international community should make efforts not to allow an escalation of tension.

And to the question on whether Armenia’s air defense system and the respective Russian military subdivisions in the country may be brought to a high combat-readiness, he responded that these military units operate according to the plan.