ArmInfo.Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had a conversation at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi. "I have just spoken with my colleagues - with the Deputy Prime Minister, you know him well.
He deals with resolving economic issues and unblocking transport corridors. I have also spoken with the Defence Minister and with the FSB Director who is in charge of the Border Guard Service that is making a tangible contribution to settling the problem. In short, there are many issues to resolve," Putin said. "However, I would still like to start our bilateral meeting by saying that next year we will mark the 30th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. This is certainly a landmark and I suppose we should celebrate it befittingly. I would like to say in this context that our strategic partnership is making steady headway," the Russian leader said.
"With regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, we will continue this discussion in a trilateral format after the Prime Minister of Armenia joins us. I think our peacekeepers play a positive role there, and the Russian-Turkish centre for monitoring the ceasefire is fully operational as well. Unfortunately, there are problems, incidents and casualties. But this is precisely why we have gathered - in order to see what has been accomplished and what needs to be done by everyone to make sure that nothing of the kind ever happens again and to create proper conditions for calming the situation in the region so that people live in peace and countries continue to move forward," President Putin said.
In his turn, President Ilham Aliyev said:
"This week illustrated the development of our relations. This week I met with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.Yesterday evening I met with the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Your Special Representative for International Cultural Cooperation was in Baku during the past week on an extremely important mission: to develop contacts between the intellectuals and cultural figures of Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Russia's active involvement. Another event this week was a large business conference of the Russian Export Centre and the Eximbank of Russia, in which over 30 Russian companies took part. In other words, this week provided a good example of our relationship in only some of the areas of our cooperation."
"I would like to point out that during the past year, since the deployment of the Russian peacekeeping forces [in Nagorno-Karabakh] on November 10, 2020, no serious incidents, no armed clashes or any other serious incidents took place in their zone of responsibility. There were sporadic incidents, but they did not amount to a systemwide crisis," the Azerbaijani president said, without mentioning the murder of at least three Armenian civilians, with three injured, by Azerbaijani troops.
Speaking of the clashes on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, "but it is not a zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers," Aliyev said, without mentioning the fact of Azerbaijani troops` incursion into Armenia`s sovereign territory.
"Nevertheless, this makes us take a closer look at the developments. We need to talk, including in the trilateral format, about controlling and minimising risks and coordinating a comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations," the Azerbaijani leader said.
"We appreciate the role you are playing personally in this matter, the role of the senior officials of the Russian Government and, of course, the role of the Russian peacekeeping forces in maintaining peace in Karabakh. We hope that these efforts will continue next year and that they will produce equally good results," Aliyev said.
The Aliyev-Putin meeting is to be followed by a trilateral meeting with Armenian Premier Nikol Pashinyan`s participation and President Putin`s private meeting with the Armenian premier. The sides will discuss a settlement of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and unblocking of economic and transport communications in the region.