Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment on the talks with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, Moscow, May 19, 2023
Today, we held a series of meetings in Moscow on relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh. First, we had separate bilateral meetings with my counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia – Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan. Then we had a trilateral meeting. We exchanged views on the situation that is taking shape in the implementation of the agreements reached after November 2020 between President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.
These agreements concern the need to ensure security and stability in Nagorno-Karabakh in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. The agreements also include the unblocking of transport and economic connections. A trilateral working group headed by deputy prime ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are involved in these issues. The agreements also cover resolution of humanitarian issues, primarily border delimitation and subsequent demarcation. The leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia issued a special statement on the establishment of an Armenian-Azerbaijani border delimitation commission, with Russia acting as consultant.
The peace treaty is a separate issue. The sides have started working on this and are discussing it, in part, with the involvement of other mediators. The ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan went to Washington, while their presidents visited Brussels a week ago. Naturally, the work on a peace treaty is of primary importance. However, our partners confirmed today that it is difficult to move ahead on specific aspects of a peace treaty without resolving the delimitation issues, unblocking the transport and economic connections and achieving general improvement in ensuring security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
We discussed all these issues in their entirety. My colleagues thanked the Russian side for its leading role in the common efforts that are embodied in the trilateral statements of our leaders, and in the contacts that continue in each area I mentioned.
The trilateral group headed by deputy prime ministers will meet next week to discuss unblocking the transport connections. We hope it will produce a positive result. The sides are already close to a final agreement. They also agreed to hold a meeting of the bilateral commission on border delimitation and demarcation with Russia’s consultative participation in the immediate future.
The views of both sides were brought closer on a peace treaty and a number of articles discussed today. The meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan has started. Upon completion, they will tell us about their achievements.
Our task was to provide a venue for a bilateral meeting. We set forth our approaches. We hope this meeting will allow the ongoing talks between the ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to reach practical results. We will continue facilitating progress with a view to full implementation of the provisions of all trilateral statements, which are the foundation for the efforts to normalise relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
