ISTANBUL

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Saturday as part of peace talks between the two South Caucasus countries.

Accompanied by their respective delegations, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan met in Tbilisi, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The top officials from Azerbaijan and Armenia also held meetings with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili and Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili.

The Georgian foreign minister welcomed the meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in a bilateral format, the statement said.

According to the statement, Georgia expressed hope for peaceful coexistence in the South Caucasus and stable development of the region.

Georgia reiterates “its commitment to contribute, through joint efforts, to peace and stability in the region,” the statement added.

“Very proud to see Tbilisi being a venue for a meeting,” Darchiashvili said on Twitter, adding: “Feel confident that our joint efforts to build peace and stability in the region will yield results.”

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two “sides discussed the implementation of previously undertaken commitments and exchanged views on further possible steps.”

For its part, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two ministers discussed a wide range of issues pertinent to the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Bayramov highlighted that based on the post-conflict realities (that) emerged after the resolution of the armed conflict between the two states, all efforts need to be directed towards making progress in building good-neighborly inter-state relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” the statement added.

Relations between the two former Soviet countries have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted in September 2020, and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

A tripartite agreement was brokered by Russia to bring an end to the war in November 2020.