Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Artak Apitonyan received today Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus Rudolf Michalka, reports the news service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

In his welcoming remarks, Artak Apitonyan highly appreciated the dialogue of Slovakia’s chairmanship of the OSCE with Armenia, evidence of which are the regular visits of Michalka to Armenia and his participation in the events devoted to cooperation within the scope of the OSCE. The parties exchanged views on the current state and perspectives for development of the cooperation between Armenia and the OSCE and the possible role of the Office of the Special Representative for the South Caucasus in that.

Deputy Minister Apitonyan expressed Armenia’s position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reaffirming Armenia’s commitment to an exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict within the scope of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. He emphasized that Armenia attaches great importance to the formation of a favorable environment for peace and, in this context, expressed concern about the escalation of the situation as a result of the recent military provocation of Azerbaijan and the murder of a military servicemen of the Defense Army of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), as well as an Azerbaijani MP’s calls for violence and xenophobia.

The parties also touched upon the confidence-building measures within the scope of the OSCE, including the contacts between the societies.