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Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan believes that Russian peacekeepers will stay in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) for more than five years.

"True, five years may be enough to create guarantees of security and stability in the region. But the Karabakh conflict is a prolonged one, so I do not believe that the presence of Russian peacekeepers will be confined to one five-year period," Pashinyan told TASS in an interview.

Separately, the premier said Armenia’s stance regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unchanged.

"You know Armenia’s stance regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. It has remained unchanged, of course," Pashinyan said in reply to a question why the trilateral statement adopted by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh said nothing about the status of the region.

Pashinyan said the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was yet to be determined through the negotiation process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

"As a matter of fact, there is consensus, at least among the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, and Armenia agrees with this viewpoint, that the negotiations must go on within the framework of the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group and that the issues that were not resolved in the joint statement are to become a subject matter [for discussion] within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairmanship," Pashinyan said.