Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to avoid 'force' after Putin hosts talks
Armenian and Azeri leaders agreed "not to use force" to settle their disputes, following peace talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were held at the Russian leader’s Black Sea residence in Sochi on Monday.
The negotiations were aimed at brokering a settlement after violent clashes between the ex-Soviet neighbours.
They also reflect an attempt by the Kremlin to shore up its influence in the region.
Baku and Yerevan "agreed not to use force", as well as to "settle all disputes solely on the basis of recognition of mutual sovereignty and territorial integration", they said in a joint statement.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The enclave is part of Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a separatist war ended in 1994. During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories.
More than 6,500 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed around 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.
Fresh clashes then broke out at the border in September, with at least 286 people from both sides killed in two days.
"This conflict has been going on for a decade, so we still need to end it," Putin said on Monday.
After the meeting, the Russian President said the pair had not removed ongoing points of disagreement, reading from a prepared statement.
He called the talks “very useful” without detailing what was and what wasn’t achieved, saying only that the pair agreed to continue contact to seek solutions.
Before the meeting, the
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