Finland initiates process on Minsk Group following joint request from Azerbaijan, Armenia

Finland, currently chairing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has launched procedural steps in response to a joint request from Azerbaijan and Armenia to dissolve the Minsk Group, Toni Sandell, Deputy Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairpersonship 2025 Task Force, told Report.

“As Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Finland welcomes the Agreements signed in Washington DC on August 8.

They mark an important development in the path towards normalization of relations and achieving a lasting peace in the region,” Sandell stated.

“As OSCE Chairpersonship-in-Office, Finland has launched the process to respond to the joint appeal. We’d be glad to provide more information later in the course of the process,” the Finnish diplomat noted.

Earlier, the headquarters of the organization in Paris, told Report that Finland, as the current Chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will lead discussions with participating states in response to the joint appeal by Azerbaijan and Armenia to close the Minsk process and related structures.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have submitted a joint appeal to the OSCE regarding the dissolution of the Minsk Group. On August 8, the foreign ministers of both countries signed the document in Washington, in the presence of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the United States. The dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group has been one of Azerbaijan’s two key conditions for signing a peace agreement with Armenia.

The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. After the Patriotic War in the fall of 2020, which ended with the victory of Azerbaijan, Baku repeatedly stated that the Karabakh conflict was resolved and in such circumstances there was no need for either the OSCE Minsk Group or its institutions.

The group includes three co-chair countries—the United States, Russia, and France—as well as Finland itself, along with Belarus, Germany, Italy, Türkiye, Sweden, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.