ArmInfo.Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly met in the Kremlin the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, with whom he is conducting trilateral talks on January 11.
According to TASS, the head of the Russian state was waiting for his guests near a large round table in the representative office of the first building of the Kremlin. Putin shook hands and hugged Aliyev, then greeted Pashinyan in the same way. Sitting down at the table, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia greeted each other and nodded. All the leaders were wearing no masks. After the opening remarks of the President of Russia, the negotiations continued behind closed doors. Putin was the initiator of the face-to-face meeting. As previously reported by the Kremlin press service, the parties plan to consider the implementation of the statement of the leaders of the three countries on Nagorno-Karabakh on November 9, 2020 and discuss further steps to resolve the region's problems. It is expected that the politicians will pay special attention to the issues of providing assistance to residents of areas affected by hostilities, as well as unblocking and developing trade, economic and transport links. This is Putin's first international event in 2021 and the first in two months of face-to-face talks with the Russian leader.