“The parties noted the progress Armenia and Azerbaijan have achieved towards the conclusion of a historic agreement on peace and establishment of interstate relations, and agreed to continue the work,” the foreign ministries of the two South Caucasus states said in identical statements issued after the trilateral talks. They gave no other details.
Speaking at the start of the meeting held on the sidelines of a NATO summit in the U.S. capital, Blinken said he and Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov will “take stock of where we are” and “see what more the United States can do” to help the two sides reach an agreement.
“But based on all of the engagements that we’ve had, including in recent weeks, I believe both countries are very close to being able to reach a final agreement, one that the United States would strongly, strongly support,” he said.
In the run-up to the Washington talks, Bayramov reiterated that the signing of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty is conditional of Armenia changing its constitution which Baku says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The Armenian Foreign Ministry rejected this precondition in a statement issued a month ago. Mirzoyan has since repeatedly lamented the lack of a “positive reaction” from Baku to an Armenian proposal to finalize and sign the treaty within a month.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev indicated late last month that even if Yerevan meets his demands Baku will not be in a rush to sign the peace deal. Aliyev suggested that the two sides first work out the basic principles of the deal and sign the whole document at a later date.
Earlier in June, Blinken reportedly told Aliyev that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should be settled “without delay.”