Closure of OSCE MG structures important step - official 

ArmInfo.  OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen,  speaking at the OSCE Foreign Ministers' Council meeting in Vienna,  called the closure of the Minsk Group structures for the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "a vital step."

According to media reports, Valtonen said she witnessed "positive  developments in the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan" in  the South Caucasus.

"In August, we reached consensus on the closure of the Minsk  structures involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - a vital step  that supported the peace process and removed a serious obstacle to  the adoption of the OSCE budget," Valtonen said.

As a reminder, the OSCE announced the complete closure of all Minsk  Group structures on December 1 of this year. The Organization added  that this process was the implementation of a consensus decision by  all 57 OSCE participating States on September 1, adopted following  the historic Joint Declaration signed in Washington on August 8,  2025, by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev in the presence of US President Donald Trump.

It should be noted that following the violent subjugation of Artsakh,  Azerbaijan began seeking the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, the  only international format mandated to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that he is  not opposed to this step, as long as Azerbaijan does not seek to  exploit the abolition of the OSCE Minsk Group for further aggression  against the Republic. Russia also advocated the abolition of this  structure, noting that it lost its relevance after February 2022,  when the American and French mediators ceased contact with the  Russian mediator without explanation. Independent experts opposed the  closure of the OSCE Minsk Group, believing that this would make the  process of Azerbaijan's occupation of Artsakh irreversible.