The Armenia-Azerbaijan border
Armenian and Russian leaders held separate telephone conversations on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of agreements reached following the 2020 Artsakh War.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan President Vladimir Putin spoke about these issues with the Kremlin and Pashinyan’s office releasing identical statements. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Pashinyan and Putin discussed “individual practical aspects of implementation of the 2020 November 9, 2021 January 11 and November 26 trilateral agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Nagorno Karabakh,” according the statement released on Tuesday.
According Russia’s foreign ministry, Mirzoyan and Lavrov discussed the normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku.
The ministers reportedly reviewed the course of the implementation of trilateral statements made the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021 and confirmed their commitment to their comprehensive and effective implementation, particularly, the commitment to unblock transport and economic ties in the South Caucasus and delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported that during the conversation the sides exchanged also views on the humanitarian problems created as a result of the 44-day war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
To this end, the release and return of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees was mutually stressed, it said.
The two top diplomats also discussed bi-lateral agenda items, including prospects for further strengthening of Russian-Armenian relations, as well as the implementation of agreements reached during Pashinyan’s visit to Russia in April and discussions held on the sidelines of the CSTO summit in May, the Russian foreign ministry reported.
Soon after reports of the telephone conversations were publicized, the Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that Azerbaijan was violated the ceasefire in the line of contact in Artsakh on Monday. https://asbarez.com/russia-says-azerbaijan-violated-ceasefire-artsakh-soldier-injured/
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Russia continues to actively contribute to the preparation of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, adding that Moscow’s special representative on the Caucasus Igor Kovaev, who was until recently Russia’s OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, continues to engage with the sides to determine mutually acceptable basic principles, parameters of the peace agreement.
“Delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is also an important direction of Russia’s mediation efforts to improve the dialogue between our Transcaucasian neighbors. Moscow’s consultative role in this process is fixed in the Sochi trilateral statement at the highest level of November 26, 2021. As you know, at the end of May a relevant bilateral commission was established and the first exploratory meeting of representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan was held on the border between the two countries. For our part, we are always ready to host our Armenian and Azerbaijani friends in Russia. We are confident that Russia’s unique, professional capabilities to delimit demarcation in the post-Soviet space can significantly strengthen security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in the region as a whole,” said Zakharova.