(MENAFN- AzerNews) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday said the West
is engaging in a 'diplomatic raid' and undermines the key
principles of the tripartite agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan,
and Armenia.
“They (the West) are by and large engaged in what I would call a
diplomatic raid. When they are trying to subdue the trilateral
agreements between Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, they are trying
to impose their curatorship on all this work, directly undermining
the key principles of these documents,' Lavrov said, during a news
conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in the
capital Moscow.
Lavrov said these documents involve 'the active participation of
the Russian Federation both in resolving issues of unblocking
transport and economic ties, and in issues of delimiting the border
between Armenia and Azerbaijan and assisting the parties in signing
a peace treaty.'
Lavrov also said Moscow sees neither the opportunity nor the
need to develop a dialogue with the West on the South Caucasus.
'We see very well what goals the West is pursuing in the South
Caucasus, in fact, it does not even hide them, it declares them: to
tear Russia away (from the region),' Lavrov noted.
Lavrov further said Russia sees the“undisguised attempts” by
the West to quarrel Moscow with Yerevan, adding that these attempts
would fail.
'We talked about the alarming trends in the situation in the
South Caucasus. We see undisguised attempts by the West to quarrel
Russia and Armenia, let's call a spade a spade, undermine the
regional security architecture,' Lavrov said.
Lavrov also claimed that the West provides financial and
material support to multiple non-governmental organizations in the
South Caucasus for the preparation of“color revolutions.”
'This is also not much hidden. ... All these non-governmental
organizations are known. The way they act, publicly defending the
interests of the West, trying to discredit the actions of the same
Russia, the same Iran, is also known,' Lavrov further said.
- Russia in favor of full implementation of trilateral
agreement
Lavrov also said Russia is in favor of the full implementation
of the trilateral agreement between Moscow, Baku, and Yerevan,
noting that the topic of the Lachin corridor should be exclusively
viewed in this context.
'Each party has its obligations there,' Lavrov noted, expressing
hope that all parties would understand the need to fulfill the
agreements regarding the resolution of the problem around the
Lachin corridor.
Lavrov further noted that a new date for a trilateral meeting
between the foreign ministers of the three countries will be
discussed in the near future.
'Our Armenian colleagues confirmed what Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan said the other day at a press conference that Armenia is
ready to hold such a meeting. ... I think that, in the near future,
we will see which dates are convenient for all three ministers,”
Lavrov said.
For his part, Mirzoyan refused that a targeted anti-Russian
campaign is taking place in Armenia, noting that many Russian
citizens live in the country without complaints.
'As for the demonstrations, the constitution and the legislation
of the Republic of Armenia guarantees freedom of assembly. I can
just share information with you -- demonstrations against the
Armenian authorities are very often held in Armenia as well,'
Mirzoyan said.
He also said Yerevan has never refused the deployment of a
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) mission on the
border areas between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but that there were
difficulties in agreeing on the organization's area of
responsibility.
Since Dec. 12, Azerbaijani ecologists representing
nongovernmental organizations had been protesting Armenia's illegal
exploitation of natural resources in the Karabakh region, where
Russian peacekeepers have been stationed since the end of the fall
2020 conflict and a January 2021 pact with Azerbaijan and
Armenia.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and
Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military
occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized
as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of clashes, Azerbaijan liberated
several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation.
The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in
Azerbaijan.
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