OSCE Denies Connection with Mission Sent to Armenia

On December 8, APA, the Azerbaijani pro-government media, asked questions to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) about the Needs Assessment Team in Armenia. According to the news, OSCE reported that the group sent to Armenia on October 21-27 and initially called "OSCE Needs Assessment Team in Armenia" has no connection with the organization.

It was emphasized that the decision to send this group to Armenia was not made by the relevant decision-making bodies of the OSCE or the OSCE Secretariat but by the personal initiative of the acting chairman. The OSCE Secretariat noted that no decision was taken by the Permanent Council, the decision-making body of the OSCE, to send this group, the group does not have an OSCE mandate, and no funds from the OSCE budget were spent for them. It was brought to attention that the delegation's expenses were paid individually by some OSCE participating states at the expense of extra-budgetary funds.

In addition, the OSCE side removed the announcement about sending the mentioned group from the official website.

Earlier, on October 20, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan strongly reacted to the sending of this group concerning the information published on the official website of the OSCE. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that any collective decision-making body of the OSCE has never discussed the issue of sending such a delegation. As a result, no decision was made. It was emphasized that this delegation, sent without any OSCE mandate, could not be connected with the OSCE in any way, contrary to Armenia's claims.

Russia Criticizes EU

On December 8, Maria Zakharova, the Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, commented on the news about the extension of the mandate of the EU observation mission in Armenia.

She stated that the European Union is exclusively guided by its conjuncture interests in its activity regarding the regulation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. "If a decision is made to extend the mandate of the EU observation mission on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan, we will comment on the topic at that time. And so far, everything indicates that the EU's activity in the South Caucasus is guided exclusively by its economic interests. We know that Brussels wants to be involved in the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan to eventually push Russia out of the region. That is their dream," Zakharova added.