Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again discussed the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on Wednesday when they spoke by phone for the third time in as many weeks.
The two leaders “continued the discussion of the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Kremlin reported in a statement on the phone call which it said took place “at the initiative of the Armenian side.” It said they reaffirmed the importance of “consistent implementation” of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow during and after the 2020 war in Karabakh.
Putin and Pashinian also touched upon “some topical issues of further development of the relations of strategic partnership and alliance” between their countries, the statement added without elaborating.
The Armenian government’s press office released a virtually identical readout of the call.
The phone conversation followed reports that Putin is poised to host a fresh meeting of Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The Russian president’s most recent trilateral talks with them were held in Sochi last November.
Aliyev and Pashinian held three face-to-face meetings in Brussels in the following months. Russia has repeatedly accused the West of trying to hijack the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process as part of the ongoing standoff over Ukraine.
Early this month, Putin and Pashinian spoke twice by phone in the space of one week amid an upsurge in violence in Karabakh. At least one Azerbaijani and two Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed in fighting that broke out on August 3.
Pashinian complained on August 4 that Baku has been stepping up ceasefire violations in Karabakh “in the presence of” Russian peacekeeping troops deployed there. The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism.
According to the official readouts of Putin’s latest call with Pashinian, the Russian and Armenian leaders “noted the role of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in ensuring stability in the region.”
Source: Azatutyun.am
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