Toni Sandell: OSCE started implementing decision to close Minsk process

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has begun the process of liquidating the Minsk Group and related institutions, spokesperson and deputy head of the Task Force for the Finnish OSCE Chairpersonship, Toni Sandell, told Report.

"The Secretariat of the Organization has already started practical steps to implement the decision of the OSCE Permanent Council of September 1 in response to the appeal of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Secretariat is taking steps to complete the Minsk process and related structures. This concerns personnel issues, archival materials and administration. Only technical functions - such as the transfer of property and equipment - will be carried out until the final completion of the process, which must be done no later than December 1 this year," Sandell noted.

According to him, the work affects several areas, namely the staff of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the high-level planning group, as well as the management of documentation and archives.

The Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the decision of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the future OSCE) to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In 1994, a structure of co-chairs was established in its format, which included Russia, the United States and France.

For almost 30 years, the Minsk Group was considered the main international mechanism for negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

However, since 2020, after Azerbaijan's victory in the Patriotic War, its activities have actually proven useless. The situation finally changed after September 2023, when Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and full sovereignty and declared the end of the conflict by its own forces.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly called on Armenia to send a joint appeal to liquidate the Minsk process and related structures.

On August 8, 2025, in Washington, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a joint appeal to close the Minsk process.