The U.S. State Department said Blinken “reaffirmed the importance of a durable and dignified peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“Secretary Blinken welcomed recent progress between the parties, including an agreement on a border delimitation regulation,” the department spokesman, Matthew Miller, added in a statement.
In his words, the two men also touched upon “the expanding U.S.-Armenia relationship, including cooperation on energy, trade and investment, and education.”
A short statement released Pashinian’s press office said only that the two men discussed “Issues related to the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process and the Armenia-U.S. bilateral agenda.”
Pashinian spoke with Blinken after twice repeating earlier this week his proposal to sign an interim peace deal with Azerbaijan that would leave out the few remaining sticking points. Baku continued to reject it. It also reiterated that any settlement is conditional on Armenia changing its constitution which it says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reportedly insisted on this precondition in a June call with Blinken. The top U.S. diplomat said, for his part, that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should be settled “without delay.”
Blinken hosted fresh talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington in July. They reported no breakthrough. A U.S. State Department spokesman said afterwards that Washington is pressing both sides to “make some difficult choices and tough compromises.” He did not elaborate.