Sending more Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers to the Azerbaijan-Armenia border will hasten a settlement of the conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday, quoted by regional news agency Trends.
"We think that any form of organisational support will be extremely useful for achieving the set goals,” Trends cited Alfano as saying at a joint press-conference with Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow during a visit.
Italy is the chairman of OSCE this year.
"We think that the issue is a rather important and positive step. This is one of the phenomena that will be visible and significant support for speeding up the settlement process.”
Efforts to secure a permanent settlement of the conflict in the South Caucasus, which is criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines, have failed despite mediation led by France, Russia and the United States, known as the OSCE Minsk Group.
“We support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,” Trends cited Alfano as saying.
“We continue the policy of the previous OSCE chairing country (Austria) and think that this is fair."
Alfano said that OSCE intends to contribute to the creation of conditions for resolving protracted conflicts, Trends reported.
Military clashes over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, have intensified in recent years and turned into a violent flare-up of the conflict in April 2016.
