Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday stated that he had agreed to a proposal submitted by Russia to hold talks with the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev next week in Moscow.
The negotiations will take place as tensions escalate between the Caucasus neighbours who have been engaged in two wars over disputed territory and who often witness deadly clashes along their border, as the situation generally remains volatile.
Baku and Yerevan, which remains locked in a territorial conflict, are negotiating a peace agreement as the United States and European Union continue to mediate.
The diplomatic engagement of the two in the Caucasus has irked Russia, which is a traditional regional power broker.
“We received a proposal from Russia to hold a trilateral meeting at the highest level under the mediation of the president of Russia on May 25. We have accepted that proposal,” Pashinyan said at his cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers to meet in Moscow
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday will hold talks in Moscow, which will be hosted by their Russian counterparts.
The meeting scheduled on Friday follows several rounds of talks which have been led by the United States and the European Union.
A meeting which will include the foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan “will take place in Moscow on May 19,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova while speaking to reporters.
Two wars were fought by Baku and Yerevan in 2020 and in the 1990s for gaining control over the mostly Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh.
The hostilities which continued for six weeks in autumn 2020 came to an end with a Russian-brokered ceasefire which saw Armenia cede swathes of area, which was being controlled by it for decades.
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There has been an increase in Yerevan’s frustration over what it calls the failure of Moscow to protect Armenia from Azerbaijan’s military threat.
As Russia remains bogged down in Ukraine and is unwilling to strain ties with Turkey, which is a key ally of Azerbaijan, the United States and European Union have meddled in to steer the talks.
On Sunday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan met in Brussels for a fresh round of discussions which was hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.
Another meeting has been scheduled between Pashinyan and Aliyev for June 1 in Moldova and it is likely to involve German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.
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