The United States and France have cancelled the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship format on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"In a Russophobic frenzy and in an effort to cancel anything and everything concerning Russia, our so-called French and American partners in the Minsk Group have also cancelled its co-chairmanship, saying they will not communicate with us in this format. It is their right, if they are ready to sacrifice the interests of the Karabakh settlement, if they are ready to sacrifice the interests of the Armenian side," he said at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.

Western nations, according to Lavrov, are holding all disputes hostage to their Russophobic policies, forcing everyone and everything to cease interacting in whatever format only to demonstrate their power to impose their unilateral will on everyone and everything.

"This attitude, in my opinion, is very irresponsible; but it will not derail our efforts to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the Karabakh conflict. The option is not ours, and if the United States and France want to behave in this manner, God will be their judgement," according to Lavrov.

In reply, Mirzoyan stated that the present geopolitical environment in the globe has made the task of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship significantly more difficult.

Mirzoyan added that "but other news reaches me: given very specific signals and reports that I have received from the co-chairs of other countries, I would like to confirm that although Azerbaijani colleagues are repeating that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship has ceased to exist, that there is nothing to do because there is no longer Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and because there is no such region called "Nagorno-Karabakh," despite all that, the international community continues to see a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, which is very encouraging.”