4 March 2010
News.Az interviews Joao Soares, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, before his visit to the South Caucasus.
You will be in Baku from 13 to 16 March. What do you expect from your upcoming visit to the South Caucasus countries?
I have been planning to visit the Caucasus as president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly for some time. I have expressed an interest in meeting the presidents, representatives of the government and parliamentarians as well as civil society in all three Caucasian states. In addition, I will visit the OSCE offices in Yerevan and Baku. In my view, the OSCE field offices are very important for the OSCE and I strongly support their work. During this visit, I hope to discuss Azerbaijan's development and the priorities for the future. I also look forward to discussing the possibilities for enhancing cooperation with the parliament of Azerbaijan and, of course, to learning more about reforms and development.
Kazakhstan is working on a road map for a Karabakh peace settlement in its capacity as OSCE chairman-in-office. Does this mean the OSCE has decided to step up its work to resolve the Karabakh conflict?
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is of course one of the topics that I would like to discuss during the visit. The Kazakh chairmanship of the OSCE and the Minsk Group co-chairs have a very important role to play in facilitating a solution, but it is up to the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan to agree on a solution. They need to have courage and political will to take this step. I think it is possible to solve the conflict. I know that the Kazakh chairmanship takes this responsibility very seriously and that they are working hard to get a solution to the conflict.
Does the OSCE have its own plan of action on Karabakh?
Of course, governments are responsible for the negotiations, but I would like to stress that parliamentary dialogue helps enhance understanding. As you know, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly special representative on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mr Göran Lennmarker, has been engaged in promoting exactly this type of dialogue for a number of years. He will continue his efforts.
Aliyah Fridman
News.Az
