Armenia says progress in talks with Azerbaijan hosted by US

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
4 May 2023 23:45

The foreign ministers of the two countries are holding bilateral talks in the United States as tensions between them rose in the recent months.

A trilateral meeting of Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry Twitter account)

Armenia and Azerbaijan made some progress on bilateral agreements during talks between the countries' foreign ministers in the United States, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"Ministers and their teams have made progress in understanding some articles of the draft bilateral agreement ‘on peace and the establishment of interstate relations,' while fixing that positions on some key issues still differ," the statement read.

Over the past 30 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars, with the latter working to gain control over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely Armenian territory.

In the 2020 conflict, which lasted for 6 weeks, over 6,500 troops died from both sides, and it ended with a Russia-mediated ceasefire. Russia sent 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the truce, but tensions remained despite a ceasefire deal.

Armenia delivered a peace proposal to Azerbaijan on February 16 that aims to end the decades-long dispute between the neighboring nations and normalize bilateral relations.

In March 2023, Armenia's Foreign Ministry accused Baku of preparing an escalation against Armenia via the use of an "aggressive rhetoric" aimed at undermining existing agreements between both countries.

In early April, at least seven troops were killed during border clashes near the Lachin corridor which connects Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabkh enclave.

Armenia and Azerbaijan's defense ministries exchanged accusations of who initiated the shooting.