OSCE: Finland as the current chair will begin consultations on closing the Minsk Group

Finland, as the current chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will lead discussions with participating states in response to the joint appeal from Azerbaijan and Armenia to close the Minsk process and related structures.

This was stated to Report by the organization's headquarters.

In turn, the OSCE Secretariat is ready to implement all decisions made as a result of these discussions, said an official representative of the organization.

The OSCE confirmed that on August 11, a joint appeal was received from Azerbaijan and Armenia proposing that the Council of Ministers resolve the issue of closing the Minsk Group and other related institutions.

"We welcome the agreements of August 8, signed in Washington, congratulate Armenia and Azerbaijan on this achievement, and highly appreciate the role of the US administration in facilitating this process," the organization emphasized.

According to the official representative of the organization, the OSCE remains committed to all efforts aimed at establishing lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus.

The OSCE Minsk Group was established in 1992 to facilitate the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. After the Patriotic War in the fall of 2020, which ended with Azerbaijan's victory, official Baku repeatedly stated that the Karabakh conflict had been resolved and in such conditions, there was no need for either the OSCE Minsk Group or its institutions. In this regard, Azerbaijan proposed that Armenia make a joint appeal to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group. In Washington on August 8, the foreign ministers of the two countries, in the presence of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the United States, signed a joint appeal for the dissolution of the group. The liquidation of the OSCE Minsk Group was one of Azerbaijan's two conditions for signing a peace treaty with Armenia.

In addition to the three co-chair countries - the United States, Russia, and France, the group includes Belarus, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden, Azerbaijan and Armenia.