The Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process was the main focus of the talks. Klaar’s office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that he will not visit the Azerbaijani capital this time around because of the ongoing presidential election campaign in Azerbaijan. It downplayed this fact, saying that the European diplomat remains “in close touch” with Azerbaijani officials.
The U.S. envoy, Louis Bono, visited Yerevan last week to discuss continuing U.S. attempts to reschedule a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to host in Washington on November 20. Baku cancelled the meeting in protest against what it called pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.
According to some Azerbaijani media outlets, Azerbaijani officials refused to receive Bono. The U.S. embassies in both South Caucasus nations did not deny the snub.
Also, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice withdrew from EU-mediated talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian slated for October. Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide said afterwards that Baku and Yerevan do not need third-party mediation in order to negotiate a bilateral peace treaty.
Last week, Aliyev again demanded the opening an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province and Armenian withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages.” And he continued to dismiss Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Pashinian rejected Aliyev’s demands, saying that they amount to territorial claims to Armenia and undermine prospects for the kind of peace treaty that is backed by the EU and the U.S.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian complained about Aliyev’s “unconstructive” remarks when he met with Klaar on Thursday. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Kostanian also accused Baku of hampering transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.