SOCHI (Azatutyun) — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan pledged to “actively” work on a bilateral peace treaty but appeared to have failed to iron out their differences on its key provisions during fresh talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, October 31.
Putin said that his trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was “very useful” because it created a “very good atmosphere for possible future agreements on some key issues.”
“Today we agreed on a joint statement,” he said after the meeting held in the Russian city of Sochi. ”I must say frankly that not everything was agreed.”
“Some things had to be taken out of the text worked out beforehand at the level of experts,” he added without elaborating.
In that statement, Aliyev and Pashinyan said they “agreed to refrain from the use of force or the threat of its use and discuss and resolve all problematic issues solely on the basis of mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders.”
“On the basis of existing proposals, it was agreed to continue the search for mutually acceptable solutions,” said the statement. “The Russian Federation will render all possible assistance to this.”