YEREVAN. - The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh was a key open at the meetings in Yerevan, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated Wednesday at a joint press-conference with the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan.
According to the German FM, two months have passed since the resumption of military actions in April, both sides having victims. “It is apparent to all the sides - not only the direct participants, but also OSCE – that the continuation of maintaining the status quo is impossible. The longer the conflict lasts, the greater is the possibility of escalation. It is necessary to avoid this. The OSCE is exerting efforts, and as a Chairperson-in-Office, I am also in search for a long-lasting peace,” the German FM noted.
In Mr Steinmeier’s words, the mediators’ efforts and the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits have made the situation calmer.
“We are on a right path,” he noted, adding that it is necessary to maintain this tendency and make the negotiation process more direct. “The efforts of the OSCE and the Co-Chairs, as well as the readiness of the sides to compromise are needed,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Mr Steinmeier, who has visited Armenia in the framework of his regional visit, will also visit Baku and Tbilisi after Yerevan.
