Americas

Americas

"The US and Russia coordinate closely, along with France, to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh", Philip H. Gordon

14 December 2011 21:44 (UTC +04:00)

"As the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the US and Russia coordinate closely, along with France, on efforts to achieve a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh", Mr. Gordon stated.

He also underlined that the two countries have been effective partners in the development of multilateral solutions to other global challenges. "We are also working together to hold Iran to its international non-proliferation obligations and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Russia remains an important partner in the Quartet, which is working to implement the vision for Middle East peace outlined by President Obama in his May 2011 remarks".

In the meanwhile, according to the Assistant Secretary, there are certainly foreign policy issues on which Washington and Moscow have different perspectives. "These remain the topic of regular discussion. Our governments differ in their preferred responses to events in Syria. We disagree fundamentally about the situation in Georgia. The US strongly supports Georgiaâ€™s sovereignty and territorial integrity and has raised consistently and at high levels the need for Russia to fulfill its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement. We have participated in the Geneva talks to help resolve the conflict through direct dialogue between Georgia and Russia", he said adding, US has repeatedly urged Moscow to provide transparency regarding Russian militarization of the occupied regions and re-establish an international monitoring presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.