WASHINGTON, May 24. /TASS/. The US administration has submitted to Baku and Yerevan its own proposals related to some of the most acute Armenian-Azerbaijani issues, a high-ranking US diplomat has said.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US Department of State Dereck Hogan told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that some progress had been made in the ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"The [US] secretary [of state] hosted the two foreign ministers in early May to work through some of the most contentious issues, including for example the distancing of forces along the border, dispute resolution mechanism in the treaty that we are trying to facilitate, [and] the rights and security of the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. These are <...> the issues that we are working through," the US diplomat said during hearings at the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov, and Ararat Mirzoyan, met in Washington on May 1 for talks mediated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Commenting on the talks, Hogan said the sides engaged in intense diplomatic contacts.
"We put forward a number of proposals that gave the two sides perhaps some bridging language. So they have been <…> studying them," the US diplomat added.
He said he spoke to the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers last week in a bid to find areas where progress can be made.
Hogan also mentioned the expected meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev, expected to take place in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on June 1 with the participation of European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to the US diplomat, the talks will "focus on what needs to be done to actually get this across the finish line."
"We still have a long way to go. When it comes to the Lachin Corridor, that’s something that the [US] secretary [of state] has been pushing very hard on, particularly when it comes to the opening of it for commercial as well as private vehicles," Hogan said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday that Armenia would recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity as well as that of Nagorno-Karabakh on the condition that the security of the Armenian population is guaranteed. He said he meet with Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev in Moscow for talks mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.