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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government's policy is on the situation concerning Nagorno-Karabakh in the Republic of Azerbaijan; what recent representations he has made regarding the presence of Russian forces; what plans there are for (a) mediation and (b) the provision of (i) observers and (ii) peacekeeping forces by international organisations; and if he will make a statement. [189873] Mr. Rammell: We will support any mechanism for the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh dispute which both parties can accept and which has a realistic chance of delivering a lasting political settlement. The framework for discussing such mechanisms is the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, the US and France. While the UK is not a member of the Minsk Group, we support its work and remain in close touch through the UK Special Representative to the South Caucasus, Sir Brian Fall. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office arranges for periodic observation of the line of control from both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. There are no Russian forces in Nagorno Karabakh that we are aware of. At its summit in 1994, the OSCE agreed in principle to the deployment of a multi-national peacekeeping operation, following the conclusion of a political agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict, and established a High Level Planning Group (HLPG) to work on details of an operation. This point has not been reached but high level governmental contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue on a regular basis with and without the facilitation of the Minsk Group.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

425 c298W; 189873

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Peacekeeping operations USA Russia Peace negotiations Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk