The Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office is continuing its vital work in helping achieve a lasting peace. This is what the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office informed in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am’s inquiry about the potential changes in the activities of the group of Ambassador Kasprzyk.
“On 10 August 1995, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) appointed a Personal Representative who, in accordance with the mandate “represents and assists the CiO on issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reports on activities to the CiO and, through him/her, to the Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs, and assists the parties to implement confidence-building and humanitarian measures.” In fulfilling its tasks the Personal Representative of the CiO is assisted by five Field Assistants.
The three functions – to represent the CiO, to report and to assist the parties – have not changed. In concrete terms, the Personal Representative of the CiO still participates in high-level meetings related to the Co-Chairs’ activities and the OSCE in general, and keeps the Chairperson informed about developments and the situation on the ground. He also holds his own high-level meetings in the region, working on measures to lower tensions, in particular confidence-building measures, some of which he has already discussed in Baku and Yerevan.
Following the military hostilities of 2020 there have been some changes. For example, monitoring activities in the military sphere that were part of the confidence- building measures have ceased. Almost 2,000 Russian military personnel have been deployed to the area as agreed in the trilateral statement of 10 November, 2020.
A lot remains to be done in the field of building trust and humanitarian issues, both to serve the longer term objective of reconciliation between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, as well as the more urgent need to lower tensions and facilitate the political process led by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The mutual consent of the parties is required for specific measures to be taken. The Office of the Personal Representative of the CiO is continuing its vital work in helping achieve a lasting peace,” the Office reported.
