US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chaired the first meeting of foreign ministers since last week’s deadly border clash.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged “a lasting peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the top US diplomat brought the foreign ministers of the two countries together for the first face-to-face meeting. from outbreak of violence last week.
Blinken received Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov at a hotel in New York City on Monday on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly.
This is the first face-to-face meeting of foreign ministers since two days of shelling last week.
Blinken said he was “encouraged” to be violence-free for several days. “A strong and sustained diplomatic commitment is the best path for everyone,” he said before the meeting.
“There is a path to a lasting peace that resolves differences through diplomacy. The United States stands ready to do whatever it can to support these efforts. And I am grateful to both of my colleagues who are here today to pursue this conversation.”
The meeting was held just one day after the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Armenia and condemned Azeri’s attacks, drawing complaints from Baku.
“Pokesler’s baseless and unfair accusations against Azerbaijan are unacceptable,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “This is a serious blow to efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Revised National Security Council in Armenia DEADMAN from last week’s fighting from 136 to 207, the total death toll for both sides was 286.
A ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday after an outbreak of violence, marking the worst outbreak since Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-week war across the Nagorno-Karabakh region by 2020.
The two former Soviet states have been caught in a decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, controlled by post-Armenianist Armenian forces. conflict since the war of secession there ended in 1994.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have Trade blame about the latest shelling, with Armenian authorities accusing Baku of unprovoked aggression and Azeri officials saying their country was responding to Armenian attacks.
Speaking ahead of Monday’s meeting in New York City, Foreign Minister Azeri Bayramov said his country was “satisfied with the level of relations” with the US.
Bayramov also said his face-to-face conversations with his Armenian counterpart, Mirzoyan, were not unusual. “We are always open for meetings,” he said.
