National Statement on the Statement of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs
As delivered by Chargé d’Affaires Courtney Austrian
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
December 9, 2021
Thank you, Madam Chair.
As a Co-Chair of the Minsk Group, the United States reiterates our strong support for the resumption of direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. We encourage Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue their engagement with the Co-Chairs to make concrete progress on humanitarian issues — including, inter alia, detainees, demining, missing persons, voluntary return of displaced persons, and the protection of historic and cultural sites, and to work constructively to resolve other outstanding issues, such as border delimitation and demarcation and the restoration of economic and transportation links. We also encourage Armenia and Azerbaijan to investigate alleged human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law and to hold perpetrators accountable.
We were disappointed that it was not possible to hold a joint meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan under the Co-Chairs’ auspices on the margins of the Stockholm Ministerial Council. We encourage the sides to heed the messages of Ministers at the Stockholm meeting to seize the opportunity to make progress in finding comprehensive solutions to all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in order to secure a secure, stable, prosperous, and peaceful future for the South Caucasus region.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
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