The two ministers met in New Delhi on the sidelines of a conference on international security attended by many foreign leaders.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said they discussed Russian-Armenian relations as well as “regional issues” and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in particular. It said Lavrov stressed the importance of “intensifying efforts on all tracks of the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization in accordance with the agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry likewise reported that Lavrov and Mirzoyan reviewed progress towards the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the restoration of transport links between the two South Caucasus states and the demarcation of their long border. Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia was also on the agenda, it said in a statement.
The Russian readout of the talks made no mention of the blockade. Russia has repeatedly called for its lifting as have the United States and other Western powers.
Visiting Baku earlier this week, Lavrov also indicated Moscow’s opposition to Azerbaijan’s desire to set up a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor. He said this would run counter to the 2020 ceasefire agreement that placed the corridor under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
Speaking after talks with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, Lavrov also reaffirmed his readiness to host talks between his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts. He noted that Yerevan “has not yet given its final consent.”
The three ministers were scheduled to meet in Moscow in late December. The Armenian side cancelled the meeting in protest against the Azerbaijani blockade. Moscow criticized the move.
Russian-Armenian relations have soured in recent months because of what Yerevan sees as Russia’s reluctance to support its main regional ally locked in the protracted conflict with Azerbaijan. Armenian leaders have also accused the Russians of doing little to unblock the Lachin corridor.
Russian officials have strongly denied that. They have chided Yerevan for asking the European Union to send monitors to Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has claimed that the EU’s monitoring mission launched last month is part of the West’s efforts of squeeze Russia out of the South Caucasus and use the Karabakh conflict in the standoff over Ukraine.
The ministry said that Lavrov’s latest meeting with Mirzoyan took place “in a friendly and trusting atmosphere.”
While in New Delhi, the Armenian minister also met with the EU’s foreign and security policy chief, Josep Borrell. His press office said both men praised the recent deployment of some 100 EU monitors to Armenian border areas.
The EU’s top official, Charles Michel, is now understood to be trying to host a fresh Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Brussels.