MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko focused on the implementation of Nagorno-Karabakh trilateral agreements of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in a phone call with Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Halaf Halafov on Wednesday.

"A package of pressing bilateral and regional issues, including the implementation of the agreements of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, dated November 9, 2020, and January 11, 2021, was discussed during an in-depth exchange of views," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been disputed by Baku and Yerevan since February 1988 when the region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. According to the statement, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would maintain the positions that they had held and then the Armenian forces would turn over control of certain districts to Azerbaijan. In addition, Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the contact line and to the Lachin corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.