December 15, 2008 - 14:54 AMT
Armament drive in Caucasus pregnant with unpredictable consequences
Armament drive in the Caucasus is pregnant with unpredictable consequences, the Armenian Foreign Minister said.

"Azerbaijan keeps on increasing its defense budget and announcing plans to resolve the Karabakh conflict by the use of force. Any incident at the line of contact can lead to destabilization," Edward Nalbandian said during a joint news conference with OSCE Secretary-General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.

At that he remarked that OSCE doesn't give an adequate assessment of Azerbaijan's violations of the CFE norms.

For his part, Mr. de Brichambaut emphasized that the OSCE is the forum for resolution of conflicts between the member countries. "Peaceful resolution of conflicts is a common principle for all OSCE member states," he said.