UPDATE - Russian, Azerbaijani, Armenian foreign ministers meet for trilateral talks in Kazakhstan

UPDATES WITH REMARKS BY RUSSIAN, AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS, CHANGES DECK

By Burc Eruygur

ANKARA (AA) – The foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia gathered for trilateral talks on the sidelines of the leaders' summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital on Friday.

Earlier, statements from the offices of the top diplomats said Sergey Lavrov, Jeyhun Bayramov, and Ararat Mirzoyan would address the current situation in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region and the implementation of the agreements signed following a Russian-mediated truce between Baku and Yerevan in the meeting.

Before the meeting, Lavrov said he hopes to discuss the implementation of the trilateral agreements on Karabakh reached in November 2020 and January 2021 to understand "how to move forward."

"A separate topic is the negotiation of a peace treaty in addition to agreements on unblocking economic and transport communications, and conducting delimitation through the creation of a bilateral commission between Azerbaijan and Armenia with the advisory assistance of the Russian side," Lavrov said.

For his part, Bayramov said that the Azerbaijani side would concentrate on preparing a peace agreement with Armenia.

“We will focus on aspects of post-conflict settlement for which foreign ministers are responsible. In particular, we are talking about a peace agreement, the topic of which we are discussing,” he further said.

The meeting agenda will also include other issues related to peace in the South Caucasus, including border delimitation, the unblocking of communications and humanitarian issues, he added.

The Karabakh region was liberated from nearly three-decades of Armenian occupation during the 44-day clashes in the 2020 fall, which ended after a Moscow-brokered cease-fire. The peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.

The CIS summit has begun on Friday morning under the auspices of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

*Elena Teslova from Moscow contributed to this story.