“It cannot be said that we fully reached an agreement as there are quite a lot of differences between the positions of the parties,” he told reporters. “But some points of the peace treaty were agreed upon in those negotiations. We took a step forward.”
Bayramov did not shed light on those points.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who attended the opening and closing sessions of the talks, likewise reported “tangible progress” made by Bayramov and Mirzoyan. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said on Monday that the two ministers “agreed in principle to certain terms” of the peace deal discussed by them.
“We believe that with additional goodwill and flexibility and compromise an agreement is within reach,” Patel said, echoing Blinken’s earlier comments.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, cautioned on Tuesday that the conflicting sides still disagree on key terms of the would-be treaty. He said those relate to Azerbaijani recognition of Armenia’s existing borders, an internationally supervised dialogue between Baku and Karabakh’s leadership as well as “international guarantees” for the sides’ compliance with their peace accord.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are scheduled to meet in Brussels this Sunday in a bid to build on the apparent progress in the peace process.
Bayramov stressed the importance of the upcoming summit. He suggested that it could pave the way for a deal sought by Baku.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service later on Wednesday that Bayramov and Mirzoyan will meet in Moscow on May 19 for further talks that will be hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.