10:07,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. A magnitude 4,6 earthquake that struck Iran on Saturday morning was felt in a number of settlements of the Armenian province of Syunik measured at 2-3, the interior ministry’s rescue service said in a statement.
The quake was 33 km northeast of the city of Tabriz and at a depth of 10 km.
Armenia and France, in a significant move, have held high-level military-political consultations in Paris. The Armenian delegation was spearheaded by Levon Ayvazyan, a prominent figure in the Armenian Ministry of Defense, while Alice Rufo, a known stalwart in French defense circles, led the French delegation. In the meeting, the two countries discussed various issues of international and regional security, opening up new avenues for political dialogue and mutual cooperation.
These consultations, held on December 21, marked a new chapter in Armenian-French bilateral relations. The discussions were comprehensive, encapsulating not only the current security scenario but also the broader cooperation agenda between the two nations. In a world fraught with security threats and political tensions, such a meeting indicates a shared commitment to peace and stability.
As a result of the consultations, a series of agreements were reached, further strengthening the bond between Armenia and France. These agreements, though not specified in detail, may pave the way for more significant bilateral cooperation, especially in defense matters. The discussions also hinted at potential future agreements, which could further deepen the ties between the two countries.
It is worth noting that, according to AZfront, a source close to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, reported earlier in May that France had begun delivering military equipment to Armenia. This included about 50 armored personnel carriers. Later, Dupuy, a former advisor to the French Ministry of Defense, confirmed this information in an interview with Caucase de France. There are also reports suggesting that France might supply Armenia with offensive weapons and that Armenia has received military equipment previously refused by Ukraine. Such developments, if confirmed, would represent a significant shift in France’s support for Armenia.
EGT Digital is proud to announce its partnership with the leading Armenian betting site www.vbet.am. Now its customers can enjoy Bell Link, High Cash, Clover Chance and Single Progressive Jackpot, containing more than 90 top-performing slot titles. At players’ disposal is also the multiplayer game xRide, in which winnings are generated by increasing multiplier and the participants can track in real-time the results of everyone else playing at the moment.
“We are very happy that Vbet are now among our partners,” shared Tsvetomira Drumeva, Head of Sales at EGT Digital. “The good results of our joint work are already a fact and I am confident that this is only the beginning of a stable long-term collaboration, thanks to which we will provide local players with access to first-class gaming content.”
Ruzanna Elchyan, Head of Gaming at Vbet, also expressed her positive expectations about the cooperation with the Bulgarian provider: “EGT Digital’s games have been demonstrating an excellent performance so far and are our customers’ favorites. I believe that they will attract many new visitors to our site and will facilitate the strengthening of our leadership market positions.”
https://europeangaming.eu/portal/latest-news/2023/12/21/149776/egt-digital-in-partnership-with-vbet-to-bring-unforgettable-gaming-experience-to-armenian-players/
11:31,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. In honor of Charles Aznavour's centennial in 2024, the city of Paris will pay tribute to the late French-Armenian artist and humanitarian by renaming a portion of Ledoyen Square in the Champs-Élysées gardens to Charles Aznavour Garden, the Aznavour Foundation said in a statement.
This particular area will be temporarily closed for renovation and improvement, with the intention of reopening to the public in the spring of 2024.
17:58,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. For the second year, the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine has presented the sustainable development report, which includes all the indicators of interest to the concerned parties.
This year, for the first time, the sustainable development report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) standards.
The report consists of several sections, covering all directions of the combine's operation with a comprehensive assessment of possible impacts and the measures of management implemented in the reporting year.
Director for Sustainable Development at the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) of Armenia, Armen Stepanyan addressing the question regarding the claim that the operation of the copper-molybdenum combine leads to serious health problems in the region, noted that the circulated opinion does not correspond to reality.
Stepanyan noted that according to the published official statistics, the region of Syunik is in a favorable position in terms of health indicators.
In Armenia, the combine was the first to make commitment and in 2023 it developed a report for the 2022 reporting year “Analysis of climate-related risks in accordance with the guidelines of TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures).
[see video]
Thursday,
Leaving Russian-Led Blocs ‘Not In Armenia’s Interests,’ Says Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his year-end press conference at Gostiny
Dvor exhibition hall in central Moscow on .
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Thursday that Armenia is not
planning to leave Russian-led military and economic blocs despite boycotting
recent high-level meetings of their member states.
Putin also again blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government for the
recent Azerbaijani takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh and the exodus of its ethnic
Armenian population.
“I don’t think that it is in Armenia’s interests to end its membership in the
[Commonwealth of Independent States,] the [Eurasian Economic Union,] and the
[Collective Security Treaty Organization,]” he told a year-end news conference
in Moscow. “Ultimately, this is still the choice of the state.”
“As for the absence of the prime minister of Armenia [Nikol Pashinian] from
common events, we know that this is due to some processes in Armenia and is not
related to a desire or unwillingness to continue working in these integration
associations. We'll see how the situation develops,”
Those processes are “connected with Karabakh,” Putin said, referring to
Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in the region launched despite
the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces there.
“But it’s not we who abandoned Karabakh,” he went on. “It’s Armenia that
recognized Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. They did so purposefully and did
not quite inform us that they are about to make such a decision.”
Putin already claimed earlier that the Russian peacekeepers could not have
thwarted the Azerbaijani assault because Pashinian had downgraded their mandate
by recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh during Western-mediated
negotiations.
Armenian leaders have faulted the Russians for their failure to prevent, stop or
even condemn the Azerbaijani military operation despite the 2020 ceasefire
brokered by Putin.
The resulting mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic population added to unprecedented
tensions between Moscow and Yerevan. Pashinian and other senior Armenian
officials have since attended no meetings of their counterparts from other
ex-Soviet states making up the CSTO, the EEU and the CIS, raising more questions
about Armenia’s continued membership in those organizations. They have sought
instead closer relations with the United States and the European Union.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly accused Pashinian of systematically
“destroying” Russian-Armenian relations. Last week, it rebuked Yerevan for
ignoring its recent offers to organize more Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks and
warned that Pashinian’s current preference of Western mediation may spell more
trouble for the Armenian people.
No Agreement Yet On Armenia-Azerbaijan Talks In Washington (UPDATED)
• Astghik Bedevian
U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts Armenian Foreign Minister
Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov for talks in
Arlington, Virginia, June 29, 2023.
Official Baku and Yerevan denied on Thursday an Armenian official’s claim that
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has agreed to meet with his
Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Washington next month.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been scheduled to host the talks on
November 20. However, Baku cancelled them in protest against what it called
pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of
state for Europe and Eurasia.
O’Brien met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Bayramov in Baku last
week. He said he told them that Blinken “looks forward to hosting foreign
ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon.”
“Azerbaijan has accepted the U.S. offer to hold a meeting of the foreign
ministers there in January,” Edmon Marukian, an Armenian ambassador-at-large,
told state television late on Wednesday. He said he hopes that Mirzoyan and
Bayramov will finalize an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry effectively refuted Marukian’s announcement. “If
there is an agreement to meet, we make it public,” a ministry spokeswoman told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Baku insisted, meanwhile, that the two sides have still not agreed on a date and
venue of the next meeting between their foreign ministers.
Speaking at a daily news briefing on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department
spokesman, Matthew Miller, declined to clarify when the ministers might meet
with Blinken in Washington.
“Stay tuned,” he told reporters. “I’m not going to make an announcement on that
from here today.”
Miller also said: “We will continue to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to move
the process forward. We continue to believe that peace is possible if both
parties are willing to pursue it.”
Armenia Reaffirms Readiness For Transport Links With Azerbaijan
• Nane Sahakian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during the Ministerial Meeting
of the Landlocked Developing Countries held in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to
establish transport links with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey while insisting
that all railways and roads passing through Armenian territory must be under
Yerevan’s full control.
“The Republic of Armenia expresses its willingness to create and restore railway
communication between Azerbaijan and Armenia, notably through the previously
existing railways,” Pashinian told the annual UN-sponsored Ministerial Meeting
of the Landlocked Developing Countries held in Yerevan.
“The first is the northern route which connects the Gazakh district of
Azerbaijan with the Tavush region of Armenia, and the second is the southern
route which, among others, also connects the western regions of Azerbaijan with
the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan,” he said.
He said Armenia is also ready to provide three highways for passenger and cargo
traffic between the exclave and the rest of Azerbaijan.
“In addition, we show the same readiness in terms of opening the Armenia-Turkey
railway, reconstructing and reopening the two previously existing Armenia-Turkey
roads,” Pashinian added during the conference attended by a senior Turkish
Foreign Ministry official but shunned by Baku.
The Armenian leader went on to reiterate his government’s position that all
regional transit routes “must operate under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of
the countries through which they pass.” This means that people and goods passing
through them cannot be exempt from border controls, he said, clearly alluding to
Azerbaijani demands for an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan.
The so-called “Zangezur corridor” would pass through Syunik, Armenia’s only
province bordering Iran. Tehran strongly opposes it, having repeatedly warned
against attempts to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and
transport links with Armenia.
A senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in October that the
corridor “has lost its attractiveness for us” and that Baku is now planning to
“do this with Iran instead.” Earlier in October, Azerbaijani and Iranian
officials broke ground on a new road that will connect Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan
through Iran.
The European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, noted earlier this week that
Baku and Yerevan continue to disagree on practical modalities of mutual
transport links that would be part of a broader Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.
“President Aliyev made it very clear many times that he doesn't have any
territorial claim [to Armenia,]” Michel told RFE/RL. “But there is a debate on
the concrete modalities to make sure that those modalities will respect the
sovereignty and the jurisdiction of Armenia.”
Armen Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party,
praised Michel’s remarks on Thursday. He suggested that Baku has not given up on
the “Zangezur corridor.”
“Baku has pursued that goal for many years, long before the 2020 war,”
Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It’s just that their desire
sometimes becomes more acute and is sometimes suppressed until a more opportune
moment. Right now they are not talking about that and are even saying that if
Armenia doesn’t want to open that road it will pass through Iran.”
Russian Firm Contracted For Another Upgrade Of Armenian Nuclear Plant
Armenia - A general view of the Metsamor nuclear plant, 12May2011.
The Armenian government will pay a Russian company up to $65 million to
modernize the Metsamor nuclear power and extend the life of its sole operating
reactor until 2036.
The funding will take the form of a “budgetary loan” to be provided to the
state-owned plant’s management. The latter will sign a relevant contract with
Rusatom Service, which is part of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear agency.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet formally approved the contract during a
weekly session held on Thursday. It said Rusatom Service will carry out the
upgrade of Metsamor from 2023-2026 in close coordination with Armenian nuclear
energy specialists.
The Metsamor reactor, which generates roughly 40 percent of Armenia’s
electricity, went into service in 1980 and was due to be decommissioned by 2017.
Armenia’s former government decided to extend the 420-megawatt reactor’s life by
ten years after failing to attract funding for the construction of a new and
safer nuclear facility.
Russian and Armenian specialists essentially completed Metsamor’s first major
modernization in 2021. Armenian officials have since repeatedly said that the
Soviet-era facility, located 35 kilometers west of Yerevan, can safely operate
until 2036.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi,
praised those safety upgrades monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog when he
visited Armenia and inspected Metsamor in October 2022.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
More than 120 parties, public organizations, media outlets, and leaders of the local self-government bodies of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) signed an appeal to the international community on the occasion of the Day of the Referendum on Independence, the Constitution Day of the Republic of Artsakh, and the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights marked on 10 December.
The addressees of the appeal are: the UN Secretary-General, the UN Security Council, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Council of Europe (Secretary-General, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, President of the Committee of Ministers), the President of the European Council, the President of the European Parliament, the Secretary-General of the CIS, the Secretary-General of the CSTO, and the Secretary-General of NATO. The invitation remains available for additional signatures. Entities interested in joining are encouraged to send a formal request via email to the following address: [email protected].
The text of the appeal and list of signatories are provided below and are also accessible here.
The STATEMENT made by the political and civic actors of the Republic of Artsakh reads as follows:
THE APPEAL OF THE POLITICAL AND CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Addressees: UN Secretary General, Members of the UN Security Council, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Council of Europe (Secretary General, PACE President, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers), President of the European Council, President of the European Commission, President of the European Parliament, CIS Secretary General, CSTO Secretary General, NATO Secretary General.
A free people cannot renounce its sovereign rights and submit to the rule of an alien state, especially one ruled for many years by an authoritarian, corrupt and racist regime, intoxicated by its impunity.
Our collective decision to leave our Homeland – the Republic of Artsakh (the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), our homes, our Armenian churches, leaving behind the relics of Saint John the Baptist (Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich) and the graves of our ancestors, which we have protected for centuries, is the proof to the whole world that freedom is the highest value for the people of Artsakh. We have made this forced decision amidst ongoing genocidal actions and looming serious existential threats.
We made this decision because those who call themselves champions and defenders of freedom and human rights decided to deny us our right to live with dignity in our homeland and our right to self-determination, thus aiming to achieve an imaginary peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and for the sake of their own geopolitical interests.
We left because it was the only way to guarantee our safety and preserve our human and national dignity and our gene pool, expose the big lie, on which the political idea of unilateral and forceful resolution of the conflict was based, by forcing us and our children to accept citizenship and swear allegiance to the regime that hates us.
For more than three decades, we have defended with all our might our children's right to peace and free development. We opposed the political deals that were offered to us at the expense of our sovereign right to live in our Homeland, won at the cost of lives and enormous sacrifices of many generations during the long centuries of struggle to preserve our national dignity and identity. And this struggle is not over. We are confident that we will regain our Motherland with the power of truth and justice.
For those who think that the world can be ruled by lies and brute force, we repeat the following:
The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) was proclaimed on September 2, 1991, by the legitimate authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) and the Shahumyan Region of the Azerbaijani Soviet Social Republic, when the authorities of the latter announced their decision to secede from the USSR. The political Declaration on proclamation of the NKR was based on the legal norm of the Soviet law in force at that time and the will of the Artsakh people, expressed in a national referendum. Our right to self-determination was recognized even by the authorities of Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan in 1920, and became the basis for creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region in 1923, was enshrined in the constitution of the USSR, the constitution of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic and its law “On NKAO”, and was preserved in the Law “Concerning the procedure of secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR” of April 3, 1990, and is also based on the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966. The referendum of December 10, 1991, confirmed that the absolute majority of voters supported the decision to declare the independence of our Republic. The legitimate parliament, elected according to democratic standards and in the conditions of a genocidal siege and armed aggression, adopted on January 6, 1992 the Declaration of Independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh. Thousands of our compatriots paid for this choice with their lives.
In 1992, all CSCE/OSCE member states recognized the right of elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh to participate in the OSCE international conference mandated to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In a referendum in 2006, our people approved the Constitution of the Republic, which defined the procedure for electing legitimate representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and their powers; in 2017, again in a referendum, the people approved a new Constitution. This Constitution was and remains the only fundamental document by which the citizens of our Republic are guided and obeyed of their own free will.
Accordingly, we, the citizens of the Republic of Artsakh, in an effort to defend our legal rights and the right to preserve the subjecthood of our Republic, affirm that the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh did not take any part in the formation of the constitution and authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of Azerbaijan, and, on the contrary, declared its independence. However, the newly formed Azerbaijan did not hide its baseless claims to Nagorno-Karabakh.
It was in such conditions that the international community recorded the fact that there were disagreements over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, recognizing the disputed nature of this territory. Armenia and Azerbaijan then became participating countries of the CSCE/OSCE on the condition that they recognized the existence of disagreements over the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and agreed that the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh would be determined at a peace conference under the auspices of the CSCE/OSCE. Both states have assumed an international obligation to resolve the issue exclusively by peaceful means.
However, once it became an CSCE/OSCE participating state, Azerbaijan immediately violated its international obligation to resolve disputes peacefully. Official Baku illegally used force against the NKR as a disputed territory in order to prevent holding an international conference to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. In those conditions, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh exercised their right to self-defense. The armed aggression of Azerbaijan in 1992-1994 resulted in its defeat with significant territorial losses. It is important to emphasize that the Line of Contact between the NKR and Azerbaijan was internationally recognized.
However, during the three decades of the conflict, not a single statesman, politician or international legal authority answered a simple question: why Azerbaijan and other states that have legally recognized the obligation to follow the rule of law as a fundamental principle of their statehood, can disregard the obligation to respect the right of self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh and the principle of non-use of force, both arising from that fundamental principle?
This circumstance allowed Azerbaijan to retain in its policy arsenal the strategy of annexation Nagorno-Karabakh through the forced expulsion of its indigenous people. Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy has yet to receive due international condemnation. International actors, contrary to their international obligations to bear responsibility for protecting the population from genocide (Responsibility to Protect), unfortunately, did not pay due attention to the warnings contained in the Statement of the Parliament of Artsakh of July 27, 2023 about the most serious existential threats facing the population of Artsakh, did not prevent the criminal actions of Azerbaijan, which committed another military aggression against the NKR in September 2023 and completely expelled the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh from their historical Homeland.
It should be recalled that after conclusion of truce on November 9, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem no longer exists, and everyone must come to terms with the results of the Second Karabakh War. In an effort to change the essence of the conflict, Azerbaijan has introduced into its diplomatic vocabulary a false narrative of “Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani lands,” through which it attempts to mute legitimate concerns about its aggressive genocidal policy.
We do not intend to compromise our principles, beliefs and our rights in relation to our own Motherland, neither in the face of force, nor under the threat of destruction, neither in exile, nor under any other political circumstances.
The whole civilized world faces a choice today: either to restore the international order in Nagorno-Karabakh, based on respect for the right to self-determination and other rights and freedoms of peoples and human rights, or to agree that blockade, armed aggression, genocide and occupation are legitimate ways to resolve conflicts.
Today, leaders of many states speak about the need for the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh. However, we believe that for the peaceful, safe and dignified return and life of our people in their homeland the following indisputable conditions are required:
First, we rule out the return of citizens of the Republic of Artsakh to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani armed forces, police and administration must be completely withdrawn from the territory of the Republic of Artsakh, including the Shahumyan region, where too Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the ethnic cleansing in 1992.
Second, multinational international UN peacekeeping forces should be deployed along the entire border of the Republic of Artsakh, and a demilitarized zone should be created.
Third, the internationally recognized Lachine Corridor should be completely transferred to UN control and management.
Fourth, the territory of the Republic of Artsakh should be handed over to the UN control to ensure the conditions for the return of all refugees, formation of democratic and legal institutions and the restoration of the economy. All refugees must have equal status, equal rights and be subject to the common rules of the transitional period until a referendum is held to confirm the final political status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the result of which will be legally recognized by all states.
Fifth, the possibility of criminal prosecution by Azerbaijan of citizens of the Republic of Artsakh on any charges for the entire period of the conflict should be completely excluded. All arrested and already convicted Armenians in Azerbaijan must be released immediately. We are ready to recognize the competence of an international tribunal to investigate every war crime for which our citizens are accused, provided that in a similar way this tribunal will also address all war crimes committed by citizens of Azerbaijan and its mercenaries.
We are ready to do our best to contribute to achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which will be based on the full respect for the right to self-determination and other internationally recognized human rights and freedoms of peoples.
12:57, 9 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The OSCE stands ready to help as a platform for continued dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, said on social media.
“Yesterday’s joint statement by Armenia and Azerbaijan is exactly the sort of positive step forward needed on the path to sustainable peace. The OSCE stands ready to help as a platform for continued dialogue & as an implementation partner for agreements,” he posted on X on Friday.
In a joint statement Armenia and Azerbaijan reconfirmed their intention to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Driven by the values of humanism and as a gesture of goodwill, the Republic of Azerbaijan releases 32 Armenian military servicemen. In its turn, driven by the values of humanism and as a gesture of goodwill, the Republic of Armenia releases 2 Azerbaijani military servicemen.
21:47, 8 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on December 8 had a telephone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece George Gerapetritis.
The interlocutors touched upon the key issues of the Armenia-Greece bilateral agenda, as well as of the Armenia-EU partnership. Both sides commended the steps and initiatives aimed at expanding cooperation on both bilateral and multilateral platforms, the deepening of the political dialogue, the foreign ministry said.
The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Greece exchanged views on regional security and stability topics.
According to the source, Minister Mirzoyan briefed his counterpart on the latest developments in the normalization process of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and the positions of the Armenian side on the draft peace treaty. The importance of the joint statement made the day before by the office of the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan and further efficient steps in that direction were mentioned.
13:46, 7 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks forward to hosting the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington soon for peace negotiations, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien said after his trip to Baku.
“Had positive and constructive meetings in Baku. As I told President Aliyev, the U.S. welcomes visits by the Central Bank Governor and Energy Minister, and Secretary Blinken looks forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon for peace negotiations,” O’Brien said in a post on X.