Lavrov publicized the offer right after a meeting in Istanbul on October 18 of the foreign ministers of the five states making up the so-called “Consultative Regional Platform 3+3.” He accused the West of meddling in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict for ulterior purposes.
“We, the Turks and the Iranians offered our colleagues, Yerevan and Baku, to use the 3+3 platform to complete the work on a peace treaty,” Lavrov said, adding that Russian-brokered understandings reached by Yerevan and Baku in 2021 and 2022 should serve as the “groundwork” for delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, opening it to commerce and settling other contentious issues.
“That proposal [cited by Lavrov] is not really on the table,” Mirzoyan told the Armenian parliament. “But even if it is, we do not find it expedient to respond positively to it.”
“We have a format of bilateral negotiations with Azerbaijan in all directions, both on border demarcation and on the peace treaty,” he said, answering a question from a parliament deputy.
Amid its mounting tensions with Moscow, Yerevan already declined earlier this year similar Russian offers to help resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It has been far more open to peace talks with Baku mediated or arranged by Western powers.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony hosted such talks between Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in New York late last month. The two ministers met again on the sidelines of the Istanbul gathering.
Baku has since continued to reject an Armenian proposal to sign an initial peace deal and to link any settlement with a change of Armenia’s constitution. Mirzoyan criticized its “unconstructive approach.”
“But this does not distract us from our strategy: to make the signing of the peace agreement a reality as soon as possible,” added the minister.
Michael Carpenter, a senior official at the U.S. National Security Council, conveyed letters from U.S. President Joe Biden to the leaders of the two South Caucasus states during his visits to Baku and Yerevan earlier this week. In his message to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Biden said Washington is ready to take “bold initiatives” to help broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.