MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry is not aware of the creation of a working group on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to replace the OSCE Minsk Group, the commentary by Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov said, published on the Ministry’s website on Tuesday.
According to him, "it is best to ask the actual participants" about the content of a phone conversation between Russian and Turkish leaders. "Although the Russian Foreign Ministry is not aware of the creation of any bilateral formats to replace the OSCE Minsk Group," the diplomat stressed.
"We continue to proceed from the neutral role of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who provided an important input for the development of basic principles of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which laid the foundation for the agreements recorded in the November 9 statement of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. We proceed from the fact that the agreements reached will create the necessary conditions for a long-term and full-scale settlement of the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh on a fair basis and in the interests of Armenian and Azerbaijani people."
Earlier, Turkish media outlets reported that Presidents of Russia and Turkey Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a result of a phone conversation on November 7 agreed to create a working group on settling the Karabakh conflict.