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The Full Member of Armenian delegation to PACE, General Rapporteur on local and regional authorities Armen Gevorgyan addressed a question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, the Chair of the Committee of Ministers Edgars Rinkēvičs at the Summer Session of the Assembly:

“Mister Minister,

US President Biden twice hosted the Summit for Democracy where some member states were not invited because of backsliding from democratic credentials. One of them is the Republic of Azerbaijan, which has not only undermined democratic standards and rule of law but also is engaged in activities to ethnically cleanse the region of its indigenous Armenian people.

In this regard I would like to ask what is the red line for you in the case of Azerbaijan? In what scenario will the Committee of Ministers show more determination to make Azerbaijan respect the norms of international law and prevent new war crimes?

Thank you.”

Mr Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Chair of the Committee of Ministers answered: “On the question that was posed by distinguished member from Armenia, let me say that we have a general principle as the Presidency of the Committee that all norms of international law, also rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, must be implemented. That each and every Member State needs to abide by those norms.

We already, as I said also replying to the previous questions by our distinguished members from both Armenia and Azerbaijan, we are inclined to ask all Member States to implement all the conventions and also to honour all the commitments that countries have made when they acceded to this organisation, and will continue to put this principle above all.

I do not believe that outlining kind of coloured lines would be the best approach of the spirit of the work of this great organisation. We are very much determined to make sure that each and every Member State fully complies with basic statutes and conventions of international law and also European Conventions.

Thank you.”