On 18 October, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan had a telephone conversation with Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

The Foreign Ministers discussed the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone following the large-scale aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan. Minister Mnatsakanyan stressed the inadmissibility of Azerbaijan committing war crimes, including the continuous targeting of Artsakh’s civilian population and livelihood infrastructure, the shelling of places of worship and cultural sites, as well as the inhuman treatment of Armenian prisoners of war under the control of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

Referring to the 10 October and 17 October agreements on a ceasefire, Minister Mnatsakanyan stressed Azerbaijan’s destructive policy of non-implementation of the agreements reached. The RA Foreign Minister reaffirmed Armenia’s position on strengthening the ceasefire regime and the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Welcoming the humanitarian truce reached on 17 October, Minister Champagne stressed the need to maintain and implement it, as well as the introduction of appropriate verification mechanisms. Expressing his support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the Canadian Foreign Minister stressed the need for non-regional actors to intervene in the conflict.

Minister Mnatsakanyan, in his turn, highly assessed the principled decision of the Canadian leadership to suspend the export of strategic goods to Turkey within the framework of the ongoing investigation. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan noted that it is possible to counteract Turkey’s expansionist policy only through the resolute and active efforts of the international community.