Foreign

Home page

Foreign

US analyst Vladimir Socor: â€œLithuanian chairmanship at the OSCE intends to help re-energize the negotiations within the Minsk Group over Nagorno-Karabakh peace processâ€

04 February 2011 10:28 (UTC +04:00)

Meanwhile, Mr. Socor points out that, â€œthe West looks far less engaged than Russia with this issueâ€.

â€œFor example, Washington handles the process at ambassadorial level, versus Russia at the presidential levelâ€, he mentions, adding that during 2009-2010 Washington almost derailed the process by breaking the linkage between Armenian troop withdrawal from Azerbaijani districts adjoining Upper Karabakh and a reopening of the Turkey-Armenia border.

â€œFrance, acting in a national capacity in this process, holds a co-chairmanâ€™s seat that could be the EUâ€™s, particularly since the Lisbon Treaty and the EUâ€™s common foreign and security policy went into effectâ€, he says..

According to the analyst, strengthening the OSCEâ€™s early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and resolution capabilities may be a noble-sounding endeavor, but counter-productive in practice.