The political settlement of the Artsakh conflict is still ahead. This is a very important observation, especially in the context that official Baku constantly insists that the conflict can be considered to be over, and the status of Nagorno Karabakh is no longer a subject of discussion. In any case, the signals coming from at least two of the three centers of power dealing with the settlement of the Artsakh conflict show that the situation is not as it is presented by the Azerbaijani authorities.
First of all, the fact that the meeting of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jonathan Lacotte and the RA Minister of Defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan took place on the initiative of the French side earlier this week already speaks of the fact that at least in Paris they do not intend to withdraw from France's role in the Karabakh conflict settlement.
And here it is not so much the press release spread by the Ministry of Defense or the essence of the cooperation proposals made by the French side, but the very fact of the meeting. France, in fact, shows that even in the conditions of new realities, not only is it not going to bypass the issue of conflict settlement, but it is also going to have a much more active involvement.
It became clear from the interview of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko to TASS that the work of the OSCE Minsk Group should be intensified in the near future. Rudenko, in particular, stressed that it was the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs who developed and presented the principles for the settlement of the conflict, and at least that is why the Co-Chairs must complete the work on the final political settlement of the Karabakh conflict together.
As for Washington, it is still waiting. This is because the Biden regime has not yet entered the "game". The United States is now in the process of clarifying its foreign policy priorities and it is assumed that Washington will be active in different directions in March-April.
In late December, the US Congress obliged the US special services to submit a written explanation to the commissions of the two chambers within three months on the current tensions between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the status of Nagorno Karabakh.
This means that the deadline expires at the end of February and, depending on what the special services will put on the table of the congressmen, it will become clear what actions Washington will take both inside and outside the OSCE Minsk Group.
By Levon Sardaryan
