.Lavrov: Russia stands for speedy restoration of full-fledged  transport links in Lachin corridor

ArmInfo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference following the talks with his counterpart from Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov expressed regret that  Armenia at the last moment refused to participate in the trilateral  meeting planned in Moscow.

According to him, there was an agreement to hold both a separate  meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow,  and a trilateral meeting with the mediation of Russia.

"Unfortunately, Armenia refused to participate in the meeting at the  last moment. We take it under advisement, but, nevertheless, decided  to meet and see where we are both in terms of current issues of today  and in terms of moving towards long-term settlement of this whole  situation, in all its aspects," Lavrov said.

He stated that the meeting discussed the situation, which now arouses  the greatest interest - the aggravation of the situation in the  Lachin corridor. "We confirmed that Russian peacekeepers are working  literally hourly to resolve the situation, in contacts with the  relevant parties. And we are in favor of restoring full- fledged  transport links as soon as possible and resolving disagreements on  the development of ore deposits in the region," the Russian minister  said, adding that this is habitual topic, inherited from the Soviet  Union.

According to him, it is necessary to remove its severity as soon as  possible. "We proceed from the fact that everyone must strictly  adhere to the obligations contained in the tripartite statement of  the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan dated November 9, 2020  regarding movement along the Lachin corridor.  As I understand it,  our Azerbaijani partners have the same position," said the Russian  minister.

He once again noted that today the topic of the peace treaty between  Armenia and Azerbaijan should have been discussed in a tripartite  format, but Yerevan did not participate in the meeting.  "Nevertheless, we touched on the topic of a peace treaty today. We  believe that everything must be done to bring the positions of the  parties together. At a certain stage, it seemed that the initial  Azerbaijani proposals, which were positively received by Armenia,  would create a basis for the development of an already relevant legal  document ", he said, emphasizing that both Yerevan and Baku recognize  the need for Russia to assist this process, and is recorded in the  Sochi document of this year.

Lavrov assured that Russia, like no one else, is interested in seeing  a lasting, fair peace be established in this region, between states  friendly to Moscow, and any relapses of past manifestations of  conflicts were reliably excluded.

The Russian Foreign Minister informed that during the meeting, the  implementation of all trilateral agreements between the leaders of  Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, which form the basis of work,  including the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, was  analyzed.

"And we also noted certain progress on the issue of unblocking all  economic and transport ties in the South Caucasus. We hope that soon  the deputy prime ministers of our three countries will be able to  start developing specific agreements. Fundamental sollutions at the  level of the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan were discussed, and  were supported by the Prime Minister of Armenia. There is no reason  now to further delay the practical implementation of these  agreements," the Russian Foreign Minister said.

According to him, an exchange of views took place on stabilizing the  situation on the Armenian- Azerbaijani border, and mutual agreement  was expressed that the best solution to all issues would be the  practical launch of the work of the delimitation commission, which  has already been formed. In this vein, he stressed the importance of  ensuring the full and sustainable operation of this mechanism, while  refraining from any recurrence of the use of force and resolving all  contentious issues exclusively by political and diplomatic means.

"Another topic is related to the issues of the South Caucasus,"  Lavrov said, recalling the Azerbaijani President's initiative to form  a "3+3" regional platform (Russia, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan  and Georgia).

"And today we are preparing a meeting at the ministerial level. There  is an understanding of the expediency of organizing such a meeting.  We are agreeing on the time and place where it can take place," he  said, expressing the hope that this process would not take much time.

In conclusion, he noted that the topic of a peace treaty requires  close attention, and the more efforts are made in this direction, the  sooner issues will be resolved. In this vein, he expressed Moscow's  readiness to receive friends from Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue  negotiations on this issue.