According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan discussed with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov “the fulfillment of previously undertaken commitments” and “possible further steps” in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.
A ministry statement cited Mirzoyan as telling Bayramov that a “political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” is essential for achieving a lasting peace in the region. He stressed the importance of using the “mandate” and “experience” of the OSCE Minsk Group to that end.
Baku has repeatedly questioned the need for continued existence of the mediating group co-headed by the United States, France and Russia. It says that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh conflict.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also reported few details of the Tbilisi talks which lasted for about three hours.
It said Bayramov called for a full implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow during and after the war. He singled out “the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territory.”
The talks followed fresh recriminations traded by the two sides in recent weeks. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again threatened military action against Armenia last month, saying that Yerevan remains reluctant to open a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed, for his part, that Baku is torpedoing peace talks and preparing the ground for another war.