Antony Blinken hosts Armenian, Azerbaijan FMs for peace talks

Washington, September 20

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in New York marking the first direct talks between the two sides since the deadly border clashes this month, the State Department said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire last week, ending two days of violence linked to a decades-old dispute between the former Soviet states over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The fighting, which each side blamed on the other, left more than 170 soldiers dead and threatened to drag Turkey, Azerbaijan’s key backer, and Armenia ally Russia into a wider conflict at a time of already high geopolitical tensions. Convening Armenia’s Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Blinken emphasised the need to prevent further fighting and return to the peace process, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.— Reuters