Azerbaijan and Armenia are responsible for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Ex-Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State on Political Affairs, Marc Grossman, told journalists at the Centre for Strategic Studies and in the presence of the President of Azerbaijan on Aug. 24.
“The work process of the OSCE Minsk Group has been developed correctly and its result is the meetings between the two presidents,” Grossman said. The Azerbaijani and Armenian communities should be independently approaching a resolution to the problem, and not waiting for it to be resolved by other countries.
“The United States supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and we consider the only solution to the conflict to be by diplomatic methods,” Grossman said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.
As for the trans-Atlantic cooperation, Grossman said the U.S. supports efforts for its growth. “NATO is the only organization successfully operating security in the world and we must work to improve it,” he said.
Grossman expressed his confidence that cooperation will develop, because the U.S. and Europe are interested in it. “Countries, such as Azerbaijan, play an important role in the development of trans-Atlantic cooperation,” he said.
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