3+3: A Step Forward with Armenia, A Step Back with Georgia

Starting January 1, 2025, Russian border guards will cease their service at the Armenia and Iran border crossing points. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed on this during a meeting in Moscow.

Armenia hopes to sign provisions of a peace agreement with Azerbaijan within the next four weeks. Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan told Reuters that Yerevan wants to sign the 16 provisions already agreed upon with Baku before the UN Climate Conference in Baku, scheduled for November 11-22.

Russia's decision to allow Armenian border guards to patrol the Iranian border in Armenia’s Zangezur Corridor, a strategic land route connecting Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, marks a significant shift towards establishing lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

The Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict remains one of the most complex and longstanding disputes in the South Caucasus. After the end of the Second Karabakh War in 2020, hopes for a lasting peace were high. However, the path to a final peace agreement has been fraught with setbacks and mutual distrust. The recent negotiations in Washington between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, mediated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were viewed as another crucial attempt to bridge the remaining gaps and pave the way for a comprehensive peace agreement. These talks come at a time when both countries face international pressure to resolve their conflict and move towards stability.