On October 5, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic Jean-Yves Le Drian.

During the conversation, the two ministers engaged in a detailed discussion on the developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, expressed their serious concern over the continuing large-scale hostilities and called on the conflicting parties to achieve a full ceasefire and de-escalate the tension without delay.

They stressed the importance of further coordinated efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs as per the joint statement by the presidents of Russia, the United States and France.

Sergey Lavrov pointed out that any attempts to make a political issue out of the so-called Navalny case, including within the OPCW, were unacceptable, and reminded his counterpart that Russia has not yet received a reply to an official request submitted to Paris by the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Russian Federation as part of an international mechanism for legal assistance.

The two foreign ministers also discussed a number of topical matters on the bilateral agenda.