France welcomes any step benefiting Karabakh conflict settlement: envoy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Everything that is aimed at the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is acceptable for France, the country's outgoing ambassador to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier said on Tuesday, September 12.

Charpentier was asked about his position on a recent meeting of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian religious leaders in Moscow and whether Russia sought to gain an upper hand in the conflict settlement process.

According to him, the Russian patriarch's initiative was a brilliant idea as anything that goes the right way can contribute to solving the conundrum.

"It matters not who is organizing the meeting, but it does matter that dialogues are happening," Charpentier said, according to Panorama.am.

"Both leaders stated that the conflict is not a religious issue, but a national one, and that no military solution can be accepted."

Charpentier is ending his mission in Armenia, and French president Emanuel Macron has already appointed Jonathan Lacote as the country's next ambassador.