On August 31, during a briefing, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, answered the questions regarding Russia’s expectations from the Aliyev-Pashinyan-Michel tripartite meeting to be held in Brussels and the US and EU activity in that process.
Zakharova said that no information from the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides was conveyed to Moscow about the agenda of creating a working group preparing the text of the peace treaty during the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations to be held in Brussels with the mediation of the EU.
It should be reminded that on August 27, the assistant of the Azerbaijani president, Hikmet Hajiyev, said that August 31, the main expectation of Azerbaijan from the meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev in Brussels is the start of the work of the working group preparing the peace agreement. The RA de-facto authorities did not comment on Hajiyev’s statement. In general, there is no clarification from the Armenian side about the agenda of the upcoming meeting: that ominous silence may mean that Hajiyev’s words are true, and behind the back of the Armenian people, without their knowledge, another anti-state conspiracy is materializing in the form of a “peace” agreement on Azerbaijani terms, which will mean recognition of the Azerbaijani occupation of Artsakh and opportunities to discuss any status of Artsakh at the diplomatic level. consumption.
Referring to the EU’s active “mediation efforts” in the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement process, Zakharova noted: “We see that the EU’s activity in the South Caucasus is due to geopolitical ambitions and has nothing to do with the real desire to contribute to the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. They are pseudo-initiatives of Europeans, which are more like attempts to own the laurel wreath of mediation. It seems that Brussels has lost its diplomatic skills.”
On August 31, the United States called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to intensify diplomatic cooperation for the sake of a comprehensive peace agreement. Vedant Patel, the deputy spokesperson of the US State Department, stated this in a briefing with journalists. Turning to the question of what expectations the State Department has for the August 31 meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels, Patel said: “I can only reiterate what we said before. The United States remains committed to promoting a safe, stable, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful future for the South Caucasus region.”
Taking into account the energy crisis in Europe caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, for stable and safe supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, the importance of establishing peace in the region on Azeri terms and the importance of Azerbaijan’s strategic position in establishing connections with Central Asia, rich in energy sources, the issue of mediation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty is a race. has become between Russia and the West, in which the latter seeks to prevent the growth of Russian influence in the region in any way.
Let’s remind that on July 18, a memorandum was signed between the President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, according to which the volume of gas supplied from Azerbaijan to the EU will be doubled, from 8 billion cubic meters, which will be increased to 20 billion cubic meters within a few years.
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