U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought together the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday as Washington moves to prevent further border clashes and maintain a ceasefire between the ex-Soviet countries following the largest flare-up of hostilities in more than two years.
Secretary Blinken had delegations led by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov siting on his opposite sides at a hotel in New York, discussing the "path to a durable peace that resolves the differences".
The ministers were in New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting.
"We’re encouraged by the fact that the fighting has ceased and there have not been any additional military actions over the last – the last few days.
In my latest calls with both Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev, both leaders told me that they are ready for peace. Strong, sustained diplomatic engagement is the best path for everyone. There is no military solution to the differences between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But there is, I think, a path to a durable peace that resolves the differences through diplomacy. The United States is prepared to do whatever it can to support these efforts," Secretary Blinken said.
The two Caucasus countries in have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region located in and internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but that had been long under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994.
During a 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. Under the deal, Russia deployed about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have each blamed the other for starting last week's shelling attacks.
However, there is a suspicion and concern that Russia has been stirring things up around for distraction after setbacks in Ukraine.
The clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia coincided with similar clashes between other two ex-Soviet republics - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where Russia has influence.
"Whether Russia tries in some fashion to stir the pot, to create a distraction from Ukraine, is something we're always concerned about," Secretary Blinken told reporters at an event in Indiana on September 14.
