The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has officially decided to dissolve its Minsk Group, the body established in 1992 to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The move comes in response to a joint appeal by Armenia and Azerbaijan and marks the formal end of one of the OSCE’s longest-running mediation frameworks.

For more than three decades, the Minsk Group—co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France—drafted proposals aimed at achieving peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, the group had been effectively inactive since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which paralyzed cooperation among its three co-chairs.

On Monday, the OSCE announced that its 57 member states, including the co-chairs, unanimously agreed to “close the Minsk process and related structures.” The dissolution process will be completed by December 1, 2025.

“I would like to once again extend my warmest congratulations to Armenia and Azerbaijan on their historic agreements towards peace and normalization of relations and their resolute decision to start their prompt implementation,” said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign minister.

Azerbaijan has long pressed for the Minsk Group’s formal disbandment, viewing it as irrelevant since its victory in the September 2023 offensive that restored full control over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia, by contrast, had previously linked the group’s dissolution to the signing of a comprehensive peace treaty.

With the dissolution of the Minsk Group, the OSCE closes a chapter that defined international mediation in the South Caucasus for more than 30 years. The move underscores a shift toward direct negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, even as questions remain unresolved about the future of displaced Karabakh Armenians and the durability of peace in the region. (ILKHA)