The US is happy: Armenia and Azerbaijan held negotiations without Russia
Georgia welcomed the delegations of Azerbaijan and Armenia with great enthusiasm for direct dialogue. The foreign ministers of the two countries met for the first time without intermediaries.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili notes on Twitter:
“Georgia remains committed to playing a positive role and hosting dialogue meetings to maintain peace and stability in our region.”
Prime Minister Garibashvili has reason to talk about such a positive role, because despite colossal pressure from the West, Georgia did not join the anti-Russian sanctions and did not allow any provocations against Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
And so, at the Radisson Hotel in Tbilisi, a meeting was held between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The parties discussed the progress in fulfilling previously assumed obligations and exchanged views on possible further steps.
The Armenian minister once again emphasized the importance of a political settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the need to use the institution of co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, although it stopped working, and one of the key participants of the group, Russia, is not eager to resume work within this group together with the United States.
Mirzoyan touched upon the problems of the release and repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and clarifying the fate of the missing, which is the most important issue for the Armenian side at this stage.
At the same time, the meeting of ministers took place against the backdrop of an exchange of accusations about the shelling. However, this does not surprise anyone: Azerbaijan and Armenia regularly exchange accusations of shelling.
And a day earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused the Russian Ministry of Defense that it had not fulfilled its promise to ensure the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with the agreements of November 10, 2020.
The tense situation around Karabakh remains constant after the 44-day war, which ended in the victory of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side remains the main reason for the “high temperature” around the disputed territory, which does not suit Russia, which acts as a guarantor of maintaining the status quo achieved by the parties following the armed clash two years ago.
By conducting a strategic military action in Ukraine, Russia cannot be distracted and seriously concern itself with other problems.
Understanding the constraint of its northern neighbor, Azerbaijan, exactly a month after the start of Russia’s military defense in Ukraine, made an attempt to develop military successes in Karabakh.
According to Yerevan, on March 24, Azerbaijani armed forces violated the line of contact in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping mission and invaded the village of Parukh in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The Russian Ministry of Defense also accused the Azerbaijani military of violating the trilateral agreement.
Azerbaijan abandoned the village of Parukh and withdrew troops from the area of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers only after the intervention of Russian Defense Minister Shoigu.
Meanwhile, opposition protests in Yerevan continue, accusing Prime Minister Pashinyan of an anti-state foreign policy. Resistance movement coordinator Ishkhan Saghatelyan states:
“The defense of Armenia and Artsakh on international platforms is in a state of disrepair; our interests are not protected.”
The resistance movement, which is seeking a change of government, believes that the next authorities of Armenia should invalidate any agreement reached by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This also applies, of course, to the trilateral agreement to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh of November 10, 2020.
At this stage, the fragile peace around Nagorno-Karabakh remains, and the meeting in Tbilisi of the foreign ministers of the two warring South Caucasus republics is certainly a positive fact that maintains stability in the region.
The only alarming thing is the delight of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that “direct dialogue is the surest way to resolve differences between Azerbaijan and Armenia.” Apparently, Blinken is delighted by Russia’s absence from the Tbilisi talks.
Let's hope that Russia, busy with the North-East Military District in Ukraine, calmly looks at the first direct meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, especially since the negotiations do not go beyond the framework of trilateral agreements two years ago, and Tbilisi, with its behavior in recent months, has fully deserved to become the venue for such a meeting .
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