OSCE chair's visit to Azerbaijan postponed

The visit of the current Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, to Azerbaijan has been postponed, according to a well-informed source.

Valtonen’s visit to Baku had been planned as part of her regional tour of the South Caucasus scheduled for October 13–15, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

As part of the same tour, the OSCE Chair visited Armenia on October 14 and is expected to travel to Georgia on October 15, according to the source.

During her Yerevan visit on October 14, Valtonen expressed support for the joint appeal by Armenia and Azerbaijan to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group in a meeting with Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.

The OSCE Minsk Group, established in 1992 under the then-Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (now OSCE), was tasked with mediating a peaceful resolution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Karabakh. Over more than three decades, the Minsk Group’s efforts largely failed to produce a final peace settlement. Periodic escalations, including the 2020 Karabakh war, exposed its limited influence and inability to enforce agreements or prevent military confrontations.

By Khagan Isayev