The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey, Sergei Lavrov and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, met yesterday (30 June) in the Turkish city of Antalya – a popular seaside destination for Russian tourists. Hosting a joint press conference following their meeting, the top diplomats revealed that they had discussed the situations in Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Nagorno-Karabakh, and their co-operation against COVID-19 amongst other things.
The Russian readout notes that the South Caucasus were discussed within the context of implementing the trilateral agreements made between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on 9 November 2020 and 11 January 2021, in the interests of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The foreign ministers reportedly agreed to continue co-operating closely with Yerevan and Baku to solve practical issues related to normalising relations with an emphasis on confidence-building measures.
Lavrov stated that the ministers had noted with satisfaction the work of the joint Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring centre in Azerbaijan’s Agdam region. He said that they were convinced that the opening of regional transport corridors and the promotion of multifaceted economic co-operation would serve the purposes of ensuring comprehensive stabilisation in the South Caucasus. He indicated that they would first concentrate on the normalisation of relations between the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan, so that they could “live side by side, like good neighbours on this land,” and then other issues, “including political ones”, would be much easier to solve.
In questions with journalists, Lavrov noted that the 3+3 format proposed at the beginning of the year had been discussed, and that for the first time, there were good plans for it. This format would bring together Russia, Turkey and Iran with the three countries of the South Caucasus in a mechanism to solve regional development issues. Whilst Lavrov noted that at the time, the idea had “provoked support and a positive reaction”, Georgia indicated in February that it would not take part in any regional body unless Moscow ended its occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which presents an obstacle to any such format.
Asked by a journalist about President Erdogan's visit to Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh, on 15 June – referred to as an "outright provocation" by the Armenian Ministry of foreign affairs – Lavrov answered that it had been conducted "within the framework of bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan."