The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held separate phone calls with the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev.
During the phone conversation between Aliyev and Putin, which took place on Monday (30 May), the two leaders discussed the implementation of the January and November trilateral agreements. Both sides confirmed that they intended on deepening trade cooperation and widen bilateral cooperation. According to the diplomatic readout, Aliyev updated Putin on last week’s meeting with Pashinyan and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The Armenian prime minister and the Russian president discussed similar issues when they spoke on Tuesday (31 May), including the recent meeting of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Demarcation Committee. They also agreed to continue working on opening regional communications and to intensify the work of the trilateral working group. Putin reportedly welcomed the meeting of the Border Demarcation Committee and re-affirmed Russia’s readiness to support the border demarcation process. The next meeting of the Commission will be held in Moscow.
Pashinyan shared his impressions of the recent meeting in Brussels, and expressed concern over some of the comments which “had no connection with the content of the discussions”. This appears to be in reference to claims made by Aliyev following the meeting, stating that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue had been resolved, and that the sides had agreed upon a corridor through Armenia.
The sides also touched upon issues relating to the Armenia-Russia bilateral agenda, and discussed the work of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.