MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. A peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia may be signed in the foreseeable future, but in the end, what matters most is not when it is inked but that all issues are resolved, Russian presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia will meet "late next week in Moscow" to discuss the issues between the sides. "There is no objective to finalize everything to the end because what matters most is the final result no matter how long it takes," he said. "That is why, no one can say exactly when the peace treaty may be signed."
"Although, as was said yesterday (at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow – TASS), the situation has largely changed; these changed circumstances actually make the signing of a peace treaty possible in the foreseeable future," Peskov said.
He recalled that at Thursday’s talks, the three leaders "reached agreements and instructed their deputy prime ministers to meet next week." "It [the meeting] will be held late next week in Moscow. They will try to finalize the issues on which the sides have an understanding in principle, and will decide how to settle them, but more talks are needed on the details," he said. "They will talk it over."
"There is a shared point of view, the heads of state have come to an understanding about how to solve it, so, there should be no artificial obstacles at the working level," he added.
At Thursday’s trilateral meeting in the Kremlin, the Russian president noted that the situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia "is developing towards settlement despite an abundance of difficulties and problems." According to Putin, there is still a lot of work to do to resolve the transport-related problems but such problems are purely technical.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk said after the talks that the upcoming meeting in Moscow would focus on details concerning border crossing and border control issues.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik on May 17 that Armenia recognizes Azerbaijan's sovereignty within its borders of 86,600 square kilometers, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh, adding that the settlement should be reached via dialogue.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union’s break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous 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. Later, the three leaders adopted several more joint statements on the situation in the region. Last year, Azerbaijan and Armenia began to discuss a peace treaty.