MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on May 18 that he would hold talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow on May 25, which would be brokered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. However, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted on May 19 that although both Aliyev and Pashinyan were expected to visit Moscow, it was too early to talk about negotiations.
The previous trilateral summit took place in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on October 31, 2022.
Talks in Europe, US
On May 14, Pashinyan and Aliyev held talks in Brussels, which also involved European Council President Charles Michel. He said after the meeting that the two counties had agreed to resume dialogue on border delimitation and announced plans to hold another round of talks in the Belgian capital in July. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that negotiations involving Pashinyan, Aliyev, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron would be held on the sidelines of a European Political Community summit in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau on June 1.
Yerevan also noted that issues related to the unblocking of regional transport and economic links, border security and the need to ensure the rights and safety of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population had particularly been discussed at the Brussels meeting. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry described the Brussels talks as useful in terms of efforts to normalize relations between Baku and Yerevan.
On May 22, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated at a joint press conference with British Under Secretary for Europe Leo Doherty that his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and he had managed to reach consensus on two articles of a draft peace treaty at their US-hosted talks on May 1-4.
Meeting with Lavrov
On May 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a meeting with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts. He said after the meeting that Armenia and Azerbaijan had succeeded in getting closer to understanding a joint vision of a peace treaty. Russia’s top diplomat added that Baku and Yerevan had also agreed to hold a meeting of their bilateral commission on border delimitation and demarcation with Russia as a consultant.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that the parties had continued to work on a draft peace agreement at the Moscow meeting. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that Bayramov and Mirzoyan had agreed to continue discussing the draft agreement.
Expectations for the next round of talks
The Armenian government’s press service announced on Wednesday night that Pashinyan would visit Moscow to take part in a session of the Eurasian Economic Union and a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan. The Armenian prime minister said earlier at a press conference that Yerevan and Baku were in active talks, and expressed hope that the parties would be able to agree to sign a peace treaty in the near future. However, in his view, the document is unlikely to be signed in Moscow on Thursday. In the meantime, Pashinyan expects that an agreement on regional links will be reached at the meeting.