There is a window of opportunity to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict now that has not existed for some time, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick said in an interview with Trend and AzerNews on Monday.
“The U.S. believes in this window of opportunity. We want to work through the co-chairs and if there is anything that we can do on a bilateral basis that will help to facilitate the peace process, we stand ready,” Warlick said.
“I believe the people of both countries – Armenia and Azerbaijan deserve peace and prosperity. We need to find a way to that. The reason I took this job as co-chair is because I believe it is possible to find a way towards peace,” he said.
Warlick said he is ready to come back to the region as many times as it is necessary in order to reach peaceful settlement.
Speaking about the possibility of a meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Warlick said it is up to the two Presidents to decide.
“It is not the decision to be made only by co-chairs. But we are trying to work to organize the meeting this year,” he said.
According to Warlick, what the co-chairs want to do is to bring the presidents together to talk through the way forward.
“It has been nearly two years the presidents have seen each other and over those two years we have not been able to find a way forward. We hope the presidents can meet, have a productive discussion, constructive discussion that can find a way forward,” he said.
“We are hopeful that if the presidents can talk to each other, they will find a way to move forward to constructive negotiations. Right now the process is not moving forward in the productive way and we would like to get that on the track towards peace,” he underlined.
Speaking on the basic principles for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Warlick said that this is exactly what the presidents need to talk about.
