Blinken pledges US support for Azerbaijan, Armenia peace process

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has promised US support for the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan in separate conversations with the two countries' leaders over the weekend.

"Secretary Blinken shared his belief that peace was possible" during his phone call with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement on Sunday.

"He also expressed the United States’ deep concern that Azerbaijan's establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process and emphasised the importance of reopening the Lachin corridor to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible," Miller added.

Fresh talks

On Saturday, Miller said in a separate statement that Blinken also spoke with Armenia’s Prime Minster Nikol Pashinyan.

"Secretary Blinken reiterated that direct dialogue and diplomacy are the only path to a durable peace in the South Caucasus," the statement said.

"He expressed his appreciation for the Prime Minister’s continued commitment to the peace process."

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan was set to arrive in Washington, DC on Sunday for a working visit as the next round of discussions on the agreement on normalisation of relations between Yerevan and Baku is scheduled, Ani Badalyan, a spokesperson for Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, said on Saturday.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Baku during a war in the fall of 2020 which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and opened the door to normalisation.