Lavrov: Russia supports holding another meeting in "3+3" format in Armenia or Azerbaijan
ArmInfo. Russia supports holding another meeting in the "3+3" format in Armenia or Azerbaijan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated this at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan following talks held in Yerevan on May 21.
Lavrov once again pointed out the considerable potential in the development of the "3+3" regional cooperation platform, representing the countries of the South Caucasus and their immediate neighbors (Russia, Iran and Turkey). In this vein, he recalled that two ministerial meetings have already taken place in Tehran and Istanbul. "Preparations for the third such forum are currently underway. Armenia and Azerbaijan want to host the next meeting in their countries. I think that Baku and Yerevan can reach an agreement with each other on this issue. And we are ready to hold events in these countries in turn," the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Touching upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, Lavrov emphasized that Moscow is sincerely interested in the full normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku. "We consider the set of trilateral agreements at the highest level between the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, reached in 2020-2022 (1, 2, 3, 4), to be a solid basis for this. We welcome the agreement on the text of the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We are ready to help resolve all the issues that now need to be resolved for the full signing of this document," he added.
The Russian minister also stressed that one can always count on Moscow to unblock transport and economic communications, to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and to resolve all humanitarian issues arising in this regard, taking into account the interests of each of the parties. In turn, the head of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed his commitment to implementing the peace agenda in the region. Mirzoyan recalled Yerevan's consistent stance on signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and expressed hope that the document would be signed in the foreseeable future.