US silence on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict reflects international disengagement

Under Trump, the US has taken a back seat on many major international issues, compared to previous administrations

Headlines last week that the presidents of Russia and France were jointly calling for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh were heartbreaking" to Carey Cavanaugh, a former US ambassador charged with helping to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Partly it was because they meant the century-old dispute had flared up again, killing more than 400 people so far, including more than a dozen civilians. But it was also because the US - which, along with France and Russia, forms the OSCE Minsk Group, a troika that has worked to end the conflict since 1993 - was missing from the statement.