Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to try to broker a settlement to a long-standing conflict between the two countries, but announced no breakthrough.
The meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on October 31 comes a month after the worst clashes erupted between the Caucasus neighbors since they fought a bloody war in 2020.
After meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said sticking points remained to reaching a final peace agreement but gave no details.
Nonetheless, he described the meetings as “very useful.”
A joint statement released after the talks said the two sides pledged to refrain from the use of force, to negotiate issues based on respect for each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. It said Armenia and Azerbaijan would work to normalize relations and foster peace and stability, as well as the security and economic development of their region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.
The two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks and killed thousands of people on both sides before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region, which is part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent districts.
Under the cease-fire, Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.
Ahead of the talks, Pashinian said he was "ready" to extend the Russian peacekeepers' presence by up to another two decades at the Sochi talks.
"I am prepared to sign a document in Sochi extending the peacekeepers' mandate for 10, 15, or 20 years," Pashinian said on October 29, according to Russian agencies.
Last month, 286 people were killed in a flare-up of the conflict.
