BAKU. Oct 28 (Interfax) - French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zacharie Gross was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Monday to be presented with a note of protest, the ministry press service said.
"The note of protest was presented over a visit to Yerevan last week by Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, arranged with the purpose of a meeting with the 'minister of foreign affairs' of the self-proclaimed entity on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Masis Mailyan, and signing a 'joint declaration' with him," the Foreign Ministry said.
The signature of this document is detrimental to the negotiating process on settling the conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh, it said.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov, who presented the note to the French ambassador, told him "in a tough form" that, considering that France is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, by signing such "documents," local and regional authorities call into question Paris's role as an impartial mediator and set a negative precedent for other EU member states.
Baku asked Gross to clarify the matter with the French Foreign Ministry and give explanations to Azerbaijan.
Gross said in reply that such activities by French local and municipal authorities have no legal force and do not reflect Paris's position. "France's position on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is principled and unchanged," he said.
The program of Wauquiez's visit to Yerevan was not endorsed by the French government, Gross said.
Wauquiez served as French minister of higher education and research in 2011-2012. He replaced former President Nicolas Sarkozy as president of The Republicans in 2017 and resigned in June 2019. He has been president of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes since 2016.