Pashinyan, Aliyev, Putin to meet in coming days

Pashinyan, Aliyev, Putin to meet in coming days
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Update: 24 October 2022 22:22
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Russian newspaper Vedemosti said Putin started preparations for talks between the sides in a summit in Kazakhstan as Moscow seeks to reassert its role in mediating between Yerevan and Baku

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev may meet in Russia to hold trilateral talks with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian business  newspaper Vedemosti reported on Sunday. 

“Such talks may take place in the last days of October, with Moscow and Sochi being considered the main places to hold talks. Most likely, Sochi will be chosen,” Vedomosti said, citing a Russian diplomatic source. 

Sources said Russia began working to organize the meeting at a summit in Kazakhstan earlier this month where Putin extended an invitation to Pashinyan and Aliyev for another round of talks “in Russia in any place at any time.

As of late Monday morning, neither Armenia’s nor Azerbaijan’s  Foreign Ministry have commented publicly on Vedomosti’s reporting, Armenian web site Civil.net said

The attempt for the peace talks comes at a time when Moscow appears to be seeking to reassert its role in mediating between Yerevan and Baku, amid deepening diplomatic engagement in the conflict by Brussels, Paris, and Washington, civil.net commented. 

Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of taking steps to purposefully “destabilize” the South Caucasus in an interview with French television, prompting Putin to hit back that Macron has “no understanding of the course of the conflict” between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Moscow has also accused the EU of “ousting Russia’s mediation efforts” after Brussels decided to dispatch a civilian monitoring mission to the Armenia side of the border with Azerbaijan, 

For months, Russia, the region’s traditional security guarantor, has appeared preoccupied by its war against Ukraine, while the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russian-led military alliance, pointedly declined to assist Armenia after Azerbaijan’s unprecedented attack last month, despite treaty obligations.

Armen Grigoryan, the influential head of Armenia’s Security Council, said in an interview with Armenian television earlier this month that Armenia expects to sign both a peace treaty and a separate border delimitation deal with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.