U.S. Embassy in Armenia has not commented on appointment of new OSCE Minsk Group co-chair

YEREVAN, June 29. /ARKA/. The U.S. Embassy in Armenia has not yet commented on the appointment of a new U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy Taguhi Jahukyan promised to respond to Novosti-Armenia news agency’s request later.

The day before, Azerbaijani news outlet turan.az reported that a State Department spokesman told their Washington correspondent that Andrew Schofer had completed his assignment as the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and was replaced with Laura Hochla.

"Ms. Hochla traveled to Brussels on June 21 for meetings with her EU and French counterparts on forging a lasting, sustainable peace for Armenia and Azerbaijan, and spoke by phone on June 27 with the French Minsk Group Co-Chair and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chair-in-Office," the spokesperson noted.

Earlier, the State Department tweeted that the U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair spoke with her counterparts to discuss the future of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"It's unfortunate the Russian Co-Chair did not accept the invitation.” the Department said via its Europe and Eurasia division Twitter account.

Laura Hochla has been serving as the State Department's Director of Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts since 2022. Previously, she served as the Director for European Affairs at the White House National Security Council.

She is a career diplomat who previously held the positions of Deputy Economic Counselor at U.S. Embassy Madrid, (2017-2020), Internal Political Chief at U.S. Embassy Tbilisi, Georgia. (2014-2017) -0-