Turkey has reaffirmed its support for the trilateral ceasefire agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated this at Monday’s joint press in Moscow conference with his visiting Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.

When asked about the possibility of changing the format of the OSCE Minsk Group in resolving the Karabakh conflict, the Russian Foreign Minister reminded that the latest document—the joint statement—emphasizes the unchanged format. As per Lavrov, the Minsk Group is a rather large group of countries, but it has delegated mediation powers to three co-chairs: Russia, the United States, and France, and all the recent statements made by world capitals confirm the commitment to the mandate of the current OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The Russian FM noted that meetings with the Armenian Foreign Minister and mediators will be held in Moscow. In this regard, he reminded that such meetings were held with the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister in Geneva last week.

Sergey Lavrov noted that the president of Azerbaijan has welcomed the agreements reached in Moscow. According to the Russian FM, he contacted his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, and during a telephone conversation on Sunday, the Turkish FM had confirmed his support for the aforesaid agreements. “Now,” Lavrov said, “they need to be implemented.”