U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Wednesday met with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, who are in Washington for U.S.-initiated peace talks.

On the third day of negotiations, organized by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sullivan met with the two diplomats to discuss issues related to security and stability in the Caucasus, as well as normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

According to Yerevan, Mirzoyan noted that Azerbaijan’s continuing aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, the occupation of sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia, does not contribute to efforts to establish stability in the region.

He reportedly also stressed that Azerbaijan’s actions against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, through hate speech and threats to use force by high-level officials in Baku, demonstrate that Azerbaijan’s ultimate goal is to ethnically cleanse Artsakh of its Armenian population.

It was stressed that the withdrawal of troops, the delimitation between the two countries on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration, and the resolution of the rights and security issues of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh through an internationally guaranteed mechanism of dialogue are key to a comprehensive settlement and the establishment of long-term stability in the region.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan told News.am that the Washington talks are scheduled to conclude on Thursday.