The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the two men discussed the implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow. They agreed to “continue contacts in the near future,” it said in a short statement on the phone call held “at the initiative of the Armenian side.”
According to the official Armenian readout of the call, Lavrov and Mirzoyan discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and broader regional security.
“They exchanged thoughts on recent developments in the region,” it said without elaborating.
Neither statement mentioned Wednesday’s meeting in Brussels of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. It was their fourth trilateral meeting in nine months.
Speaking just hours before the Brussels summit, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, scoffed at the EU’s continuing peace efforts. She said that they are driven by anti-Russian “geopolitical ambitions,” rather than a sincere desire to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“They are more like an attempt to shamelessly appropriate the laurels of mediation [from Russia,] which is not backed up by anything,” charged Zakharova.
Russian officials earlier accused the EU of trying to use the Karabakh conflict in the standoff over Ukraine. An EU diplomat insisted in June that the 27-nation bloc is not competing with Russia in its pursuit of an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.
A senior aide to Aliyev praised the EU mediation shortly after the latest summit. He said Michel has been trying to facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty which Baku hopes will uphold its sovereignty over Karabakh.
Michel announced, meanwhile, that the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers will meet in September to “work on draft texts” of such an accord.
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin held four phone conversations in August. They most recently spoke on Monday.