Blinken says upcoming trilateral talks between Armenia, US, EU not against Azerbaijan

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Friday’s trilateral talks between Armenia, the US, and the EU in Brussels are not against Azerbaijan, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In a Wednesday phone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Blinken said he had heard that the trilateral talks had caused concern on the part of Baku, and he considered it important to clarify the issue by talking to him, according to a statement by the Azerbaijani presidency.

“The secretary of state said the main topic of the meeting will be the economic development of Armenia,” the statement said.

It said that Aliyev, for his part, stated that he had received information that the talks would discuss providing military support to Armenia, the creation of military infrastructure in border areas with Azerbaijan, and armaments in Armenia “at the expense of the US budget."

“The head of our state emphasized that such anti-Azerbaijani steps, including the French policy of arming Armenia, encourage an arms race in the region and will lead to provocations,” the statement said.

It went on to say that Aliyev called accusations in the West that Azerbaijan intends to attack Armenia “completely groundless,” adding that he stressed Azerbaijan’s commitment to a declaration adopted during talks held in the Czech capital Prague in 2022 and the Alma-Ata Declaration.

Aliyev said that the trilateral talks, which are “non-inclusive” and were organized in a “non-transparent” manner, will not lead to peace and cooperation in the South Caucasus, but rather would lead to division and create tensions, the statement also said.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization.

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after an "anti-terrorist operation" last September, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.​​​​​​​​​​​​