Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger stated his visit to the South Caucasus is not aimed to resolve the Karabakh conflict, as it is the OSCE Minsk Group’s task. The  Minister stressed he arrived in the region, only to familiarize himself with the positions of the conflicting parties in advance of the talks on the association membership of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the EU in late July.

Referring to the incident during his visit to Azerbaijan, when Baku did not allow Markus Bernath, a journalist of the Asutria-based Der Standard daily, to enter Azerbaijan, as he had visited Nagorno-Karabakh in 2006, the Minister said they asked for an explanation from official Baku and got a satisfying response.

During the Austrian FM’s visit to Azerbaijan, Baku refused to allow the Austrian journalist to enter the country, as he had visited the “occupied Azerbaijani territories” (Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh-NEWS.am’s note) “without permission” of Azerbaijani authorities in 2006.