Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan delivered opening remarks during the session of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers today.

In his remarks, the foreign minister congratulated everyone on the 75th anniversary of the common victory achieved in the Great Patriotic War and expressed gratitude to Abdulaziz Hafizi for taking the initiative to hold the session.

The foreign minister went on to talk about the coronavirus pandemic, the challenges, the number of cases in Armenia, the state of emergency and restrictions in the country and the government’s social support programs.

Afterwards, Mnatsakanyan discussed the issues on the agenda of the session, including the strategies for international cooperation of youth, physical culture and sports, tourism and more.

In closing, Mnatsakanyan said he was compelled to respond to the issue that his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov raised in regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the settlement of which is being negotiated in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

“I’m not going to talk long about the conflict. There is no alternative to a peaceful settlement, and Armenia is determined to continue its efforts for this. The use of force and the threats of use of force are rejected, and the emphasized statements made today are strictly inacceptable.

The settlement of the conflict is hinged on the principle of mutual concessions, meaning rejection of the maximalist positions of any one of the sides and synthesis of the obligations that the sides assume for balanced mutual concessions.

It is with this approach that the Armenian side will continue its efforts to achieve an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.