MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russia intends to do its utmost for the successful outcome of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at talks with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Friday.
"We will strive to do everything possible to ensure that the upcoming events today be useful and achieve concrete results," Lavrov said.
He recalled that the main issue on the agenda was the normalization of ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"The role of trilateral statements and agreements signed by the leaders of the three countries should be decisive in finding a solution to all problems," he pointed out. "This concerns a peace treaty, the unblocking of communications and the delimitation and demarcation of borders."
Lavrov stressed that progress in all these areas was a key condition for achieving a lasting peace in the South Caucasus.
"Russia plays a historic role in this region and has the most serious interests. I am convinced that our allies are aware of this," he concluded.
Baku and Yerevan have disputed sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh since February 1988, when the latter announced its secession from the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. The situation in the region escalated on September 27, 2020, and hostilities broke out. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on the full cessation of hostilities in Karabakh on November 9, 2020.
According to the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions they were holding at the moment, a number of areas were placed under Baku's control, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line and in the Lachin corridor. Subsequently, the leaders of the three countries adopted several other joint statements on the situation in the region. Last year, Azerbaijan and Armenia began to discuss a peace treaty.