Baku, Azerbaijan, March 16
By Gulgiz Muradova - Trend:
Moldova supports resolution of the protracted conflicts in the GUAM area, including the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, based on the principles of ensuring respect for international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the states, Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Tudor Ulianovschi said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
Ulianovschi stressed that Azerbaijan and Moldova, since their independence and soon after becoming members of the international community, have been successfully cooperating at the multilateral level, especially in the framework of international and regional organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), as well as the Organization for Democracy and Economic Cooperation GUAM.
Such cooperation, according to the minister, has always retained a good exchange of views and sharing mutual support in common priority points on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues.
"This has been and remains particularly important as for more than two decades both countries have been facing the same problems, which require joint efforts, effective collaboration and reciprocal support at the international and regional level on matters of common interest, such as peaceful resolution of the protracted conflicts in the GUAM area, including the Transnistrian and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts," the minister said.
Ulianovschi stressed that Moldova, in view of that, has always supported the resolution of these conflicts based on the principles of ensuring respect for international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty of our states.
The minister further added that Moldova attaches particular interest to the purpose of promoting the UN General Assembly draft resolution on protracted conflicts in the GUAM area and considers as being of the utmost importance to continue the common efforts in gaining international support for its adoption.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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