Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that "strictly technical" issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours that fought a war over Karabakh region ending in Baku's victory.

Putin on Thursday met in Moscow with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, discussing a dispute over a winding road called the Lachin Corridor.

That's the only authorised connection between Armenia and Karabakh.

Aliyev and Pashinyan, in a broader regional summit meeting Putin hosted in Moscow, lashed out at each other for their positions regarding the land corridor.

But Putin said that on the "principal issues, there is an agreement," and later said all that remained were "surmountable obstacles," calling them differences in terminology and "strictly technical."

He said representatives of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan would meet in a week to try to resolve the differences.

Karabakh is Azerbaijan's territory

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Pashinyan said last Wednesday that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognise each other's territorial integrity.

It added that on Monday, Pashinyan said the territory of Azerbaijan that his government is ready to recognise includes Karabakh.

Pashinyan said on Thursday, "I want to confirm that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity, and on this basis we can say that we are moving quite well towards settlement of our relations."

For his part, Aliyev said that the Armenian leader's statements ensure that "the issue of agreeing on other points of the peace treaty will go much easier, because it was the main factor on which we could not come to an agreement."

Putin told the leaders a key sign of progress is "an agreement on the fundamental issue of territorial integrity." He added: "And this is in fact the basis for agreeing on other issues of a secondary nature."

Ahead of the meeting, Azerbaijan's leader said he trusts the Russian role in the normalisation of ties with Armenia.

Roots of Karabakh conflict

Relations between the two republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.

Both countries fought a war over Karabakh in 2020 that killed more than 6,000 people.

During the 44-day conflict, Baku liberated numerous cities, villages and settlements in Karabakh from Armenian occupation, ending in a Moscow-brokered truce and peace deal.

The peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.

Last month, Azerbaijan announced that it has established a border checkpoint at the starting point of the Lachin-Khankendi road, citing the use of the road by Armenia to illegally transport military arms and equipment to the region.​​​​​​​

Aliyev on Thursday denied Pashinyan's claims that Azerbaijan is blocking the flow of transport through the Lachin road, the only route connecting Armenia to the Karabakh region, saying the road is open and that it is not right to "use this meeting for baseless accusations."