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U.S. Vows Continued Support For Karabakh Peace Talks


U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session, New York, September 22, 2022.
U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session, New York, September 22, 2022.

The United States will continue to facilitate peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in a phone call on Monday.

In a Twitter post on the call, Blinken said Washington remains committed to helping the two South Caucasus nations reach a “sustainable peace.”

“Diplomacy is the only way to peace in the South Caucasus,” he wrote.

“Secretary Blinken thanked Prime Minister Pashinian for Armenia’s continued commitment to peace and encouraged concrete steps forward in finding solutions to outstanding issues,” said Vedant Patel. “He reiterated U.S. support for direct talks and diplomacy to support a lasting and sustainable peace in the South Caucasus and stressed that there is no military solution.”

An Armenian government statement on the conversation said the two men discussed Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of the Lachin corridor and the resulting “humanitarian crisis” in Karabakh. It said Blinken reiterated U.S. calls for the immediate lifting of the blockade.

The statement added that Pashinian expressed concern over “Azerbaijan’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric.”

Armenian leaders have repeatedly accused Azerbaijan this month of planning a “new military aggression” against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

As recently as on February 18, Blinken mediated talks between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The State Department said afterwards that the European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, is due to host another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit “in the coming days.” However, no such meeting has been announced so far.

Louis Bono, a U.S. special envoy for Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, visited Baku and Yerevan earlier this month.

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