Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was still prepared to send a mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border within the framework of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Yerevan’s previous insistence on including condemnations of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia has stood in the way so far.
“We had difficulties related to the situation in Armenia, when our Armenian friends pushed for the need to deploy a CSTO mission to the border with Azerbaijan to ensure some stability there,” Lavrov told a news conference on Wednesday.
“We agreed on a document and on the parameters of the mission … but it could not be adopted, because Armenia started insisting that the document contain a harsh condemnation of Azerbaijan.
“Despite the fact that we are allies … Armenia prefers to negotiate with the European Union to deploy a civilian monitoring mission there on a long-term basis,” Lavrov said.
He claimed any EU presence in the region without Azerbaijan’s consent would be “counterproductive”.
