The ministry said Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan accepted the proposal in a phone call with Lavrov. Mirzoyan, Lavrov and Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov would hold the talks on the sidelines of a meeting of top diplomats of ex-Soviet states that will be held in Tajikistan on May 13, it added in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not mention the proposed talks in its readout of the phone call. It said Lavrov discussed with Mirzoyan the creation of an Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on demarcating the border between the two South Caucasus states. They also “exchanged views” on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty sought by Baku.
Mirzoyan and Bayramov discussed these issues on Monday in what was their second phone call in two weeks. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two sides will soon hold a “meeting regarding the commission” on border demarcation.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian first agreed to form such a body during their trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last November. However, it was not set up in the following months.
Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to form the commission before the end of this month when they met in Brussels on April 6 for talks in Brussels hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. The latter said they also plan to “move rapidly” towards negotiating the peace treaty.
Russia responded by accusing the European Union and the United States of trying to hijack Russian efforts to broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of the ongoing geopolitical standoff over Ukraine.
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Russia’s key role in the peace process in a joint declaration issued after their April 19 talks outside Moscow.
Michel phoned the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders a few days later. He said afterwards that the EU “remains committed to supporting Armenia and Azerbaijan in their dialogue.”
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, announced on Friday that he will meet again with Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, in Brussels on May 2.
Aliyev revealed plans for such talks earlier in the day. He praised the EU’s “honest” role in the peace process.
