Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reiterates he is ready to sign a document extending the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh.
“I said this at the meeting with Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Sochi, but there was no consensus,” the Prime Minister said in an interview with Public TV.
He noted that theoretically the services of the peacekeepers could not be needed after 2025 if the rights and security of the people of Artsakh were guaranteed.
“But these guarantees not only need to be created, but also tested in practice,” PM Pashinyan said, adding that the Russian peacekeepers simply cannot withdraw from Artsakh without a clear formulation of those guarantees.
“The peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation was deployed along the line of contact in Nagorno Karabakh and the Lachin corridor on the basis of a decision adopted by the Federal Council of the Russian Federation, and the decision says the peacekeepers are being deployed to prevent the mass killing of the civilian population of Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.
“Theoretically, if the Russian Federation decides to withdraw, it cannot do that unless guarantees are created to ensure the fulfillment of that mission,” Nikol Pashinyan said.
