Putin to Host Talks between Rivals Armenia, Azerbaijan

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host talks in Sochi on Monday between the leaders of arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Kremlin said, reasserting Moscow's role following Western-led efforts to bring peace, reports AFP. 

"On the initiative of the Russian side, tripartite negotiations between... Putin, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will be held on October 31 in Sochi," the Kremlin said in a statement Friday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in three decades.

Deadly clashes in September along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have raised fears of a fresh all-out conflict.

Russia said the trio planned to discuss the implementation of agreements reached in talks under Russia's mediation last year, as well as "further steps to strengthen stability and security" in the Caucasus.  

"Questions on rebuilding and developing trade and economic as well as transport links will also be discussed," it said.

Moscow added that Putin will also hold talks alone with each of the leaders of the former Soviet republics.

The Russian leader, who sent troops to Ukraine in February, had invited the pair for a meeting earlier this month but the Kremlin had not given a date.  

A six-week war in autumn 2020 claimed the lives of more than 6,500 troops from both sides. 

It ended with a Russian-brokered deal. 

Pashinyan and Aliyev last met in Brussels for talks under the mediation of EU chief Charles Michel after the clashes in September.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also played an active role, bringing together the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in September on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly.

Asked about Putin's initiative, State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was most important that Armenia and Azerbaijan work towards a "lasting and comprehensive peace".

"We have encouraged and been clear with these countries, Armenia and Azerbaijan, that they should meet in whatever format is most useful to them," Price told reporters in Washington.

But without commenting directly on the Sochi talks, Price said that the world "knows of Russia's history when it comes to its neighbours".

"Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia and ongoing brutal invasion of Ukraine show that Moscow has little respect for its neighbours' sovereignty and is hardly a reliable long-term partner," Price told reporters in Washington.

"We think that is in stark contrast to the United States," he said.