Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the West of insincerity in the efforts to help reach a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Unfortunately, in what the United States is doing now, and in what the European Union is doing, we no longer see a desire to help negotiate, but a desire to penetrate the region, a desire to suppress the legitimate interests of the Russian Federation and a desire to establish themselves as forces that will play almost a decisive role here,” Lavrov told reporters following a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), TASS reports.
In his opinion, such actions of the West reflect the desire “to expand into regions that are far from the borders of NATO members and EU members, and this has little to do with a sincere desire to help stabilize the situation.”
“Our partners in both Yerevan and Baku, I hope, understand this. At least we are frankly discussing what is happening,” Lavrov said.
“We are not opposed to other international players trying their hand at mediation,” he assured. At the same time, the Russian Minister warned: “The main thing is that this mediation should pursue the goal of ensuring agreements that will reflect the balance of interests of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples, the Armenian and Azerbaijani states.”
