Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan hold talks on reopening regional transportation routes

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin Monday, to discuss the reopening of transportation routes that were shut down amid the decades-long regional conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Associated Press reports. The meeting follows the November 10, 2020 peace deal brokered by Russia which ended 44 days of renewed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Welcoming his two counterparts to the meeting, Mr. Putin said the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal was holding up, “creating the necessary basis for a long-term and full-format settlement of the old conflict,” AP reports.

Hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out again in September last year when the Azerbaijani military forced Armenia to give up control of a substantial part of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.

In addition to some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers being deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh for at least five years, the peace deal provides for discussions on reopening transport routes. Among the routes under discussion is a corridor linking Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave that borders Armenia, Turkey, and Iran, AP reports. Another important route would allow Armenia to pass through Azerbaijani territory to reach Russia and Iran.

“The implementation of those agreements will benefit both the Armenian and Azerbaijani people and the entire region,” Mr. Putin said after the first four hours of talks. In his own statement, Mr. Aliyev added: “It opens completely new perspectives that we couldn’t even imagine in the past.” Mr. Pashinyan also praised plans to reopen transit routes, AP reports.

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