The summit of the CSTO, a Russian-led security grouping of six former Soviet states, which also include Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is due to be held in Yerevan on November 23.
According to a report published by the Armenian prime minister’s press office, the two leaders also discussed the agenda of Putin’s visit to Armenia on November 22.
A Kremlin report on the phone call, however, did not mention the Russian leader’s upcoming visit to Armenia.
“An exchange of views also took place on a number of events that took place after the trilateral meeting held in Sochi on October 31, and on the implementation of the agreements reached on humanitarian issues,” the Armenian readout of the phone call added.
On October 31, Putin hosted talks between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev focused on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region over which Yerevan and Baku fought in the autumn of 2020 and where Moscow deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a ceasefire to put an end to six weeks of fighting.
The Sochi talks were followed by more Armenian-Azerbaijani diplomatic engagement – first at the level of vice-premiers in Brussels on November 3 to discuss border delimitation issues and then in Washington on November 7 at the level of foreign ministers who were hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on the Washington meeting between Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, stressing that the discussions during the U.S.-hosted talks were conducted “with the results of the Sochi summit being taken into consideration.”
“I have not seen anywhere that the parties refused to refer to the reached agreements. Let me remind you that in a joint statement, the heads of state stressed the importance of preparing a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan in order to achieve sustainable and lasting peace in the region,” Zakharova said, as quoted by Russian media.