The talks, described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as a “short conversation,” were held on the sidelines of a meeting in North Macedonian’s capital Skopje of the foreign ministers of OSCE member states.
The ministry said Lavrov and Mirzoyan discussed bilateral ties and the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process. It reported no concrete understandings reached by them.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued an unusually short statement on the talks. It said only that Mirzoyan “once again presented the Armenian side’s positions regarding the Russian policy and the steps taken on bilateral and regional agendas.”
Russian-Armenian relations have significantly deteriorated over the past year primarily because of what Armenia sees as a lack of Russian support in its conflict with Azerbaijan. Tensions between the two longtime allies rose further in the run-up to and after Baku’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of systematically “destroying” those relations and reorienting his country towards the West. Pashinian and other Armenian leaders charged, for their part, that Russia has failed to honor its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally.
The deepening rift is increasingly calling into question Armenia’s continued membership in Russian-led military and trade blocs comprising several ex-Soviet states. Pashinian last week did not rule out the possibility of pulling his country out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
According to the Russian readout of the Skopje talks, Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to “vigorously” facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal based on understandings brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Yerevan now seems to prefer Western mediation of the peace talks. It has ignored Lavrov’s recent offers to host fresh talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. Moscow claims that peace efforts by the United States and the European Union are primarily aimed at driving Russia out of the South Caucasus.
