The hostile Caucasus neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan have moved closer together at a meeting in Moscow after their latest conflict. Both countries are making "good progress in normalizing relations based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday.
First, Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev each met separately with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Later, they came together for joint negotiations.
The Russian-brokered talks took place against the backdrop of the renewed violent conflict between the two former Soviet republics over the border region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inhabited mainly by Armenians.
Most recently, deadly clashes broke out again at the border after Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, the only connecting road from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, at the end of April.
Pashinyan said that Yerevan is ready to "unblock all transport links in the region that pass through Armenian territory."
Aliyev, for his part, had said before the talks that there was a possibility of a peace agreement, as Armenia had officially recognized the disputed border region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan "does not make territorial claims to Armenia," he added.
Putin said after the talks that the situation was developing "despite all the difficulties and problems that still exist towards a settlement of the conflict." He announced another trilateral summit next week in Moscow "to resolve the remaining issues," including the resumption of transport links between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the Soviet Union and have already fought two wars over the area. After the recent fighting in 2020, Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement that forced Armenia to surrender large territories.
In the wake of the recent deadly clashes, the United States and the EU have recently taken the initiative in mediation. In mid-May, Pashinyan and Aliyev agreed on the recognition of their territorial integrity during talks in Brussels mediated by EU Council President Charles Michel. Moscow views these efforts with suspicion, as it considers the Caucasus region to be a Russian sphere of influence.
Recently, however, Yerevan had expressed increasing frustration with what it saw as Moscow's inadequate efforts to protect Armenia against the military threat posed by Azerbaijan. Moscow is currently heavily involved in the offensive in Ukraine and does not want to strain its relations with Turkey – Azerbaijan's main ally.