Peace and cooperation Russia`s top priorities in South Caucasus - RF  FM

ArmInfo.  The peace agreement between Yerevan and Baku signed in the United States was reached on the basis of previously concluded trilateral agreements  between the leaders of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and Armenia  in 2020-2022. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey  Lavrov during a speech to students and teachers of MGIMO.

The Russian minister, touching upon Russia's priorities in the South  Caucasus, noted that the main priorities of the Russian Federation's  work in this region are peace and cooperation, they have never  changed. "They remain unchanged. It was the Russian Federation,  represented by its President Vladimir Putin, that played a decisive  role in ending the bloodshed," Lavrov said, expressing her conviction  that all this could have ended earlier, but not all parties were  ready to do so.

Then, recalling the trilateral agreements reached between Armenia,  Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation from November 9, 2020 to 2022,  Lavrov noted that the parties decided to consolidate the document  created with Russian mediation in the United States.

"We see that the agreement on concluding a peace treaty grew out of  the agreements reached in 2020-2022 between the presidents of Russia,  Armenia and Azerbaijan. They decided to conclude it on the territory  of the United States," Lavrov noted, adding that the conclusion of an  agreement between Baku and Yerevan in the United States is the  sovereign right of both countries.

At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry believes  that it is necessary to see how it works.  "Because those  enthusiastic exclamations after the agreement between Azerbaijan and  Armenia in Washington were replaced by skeptical assessments after  the publication of the document. As it turns out, not everything is  agreed upon there," Lavrov noted, adding that the main thing is that  all of the above does not turn out to be a dud wrapped in a beautiful  wrapper.

The Russian minister also supported the normalization of relations  between Armenia and Turkey, as well as Armenia and Pakistan, and once  again spoke in favor of the need to continue the activities of the  regional platform "3+3", expressing the conviction that the time has  come to organize a new meeting in this format.

On August 8, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint "Declaration of Peace" in  Washington consisting of seven points. It provides for a joint appeal  to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to  terminate the OSCE Minsk process and related structures, as well as  the creation of a transport corridor through Armenian territory that  will connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, surrounded by  Armenia, Turkey and Iran. The TRIPP project (Trump Route for  International Peace and Prosperity, a 42-km road in southern Armenia  that will hand over control of the road to the United States for 99  years), according to experts, is capable of significantly changing  the geopolitical situation in the South Caucasus.