Baku/27.06.22/Turan: Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Azerbaijan. During the visit, Lavrov met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov. As a result of these meetings, a joint press conference was held with the participation of foreign ministers, at which Lavrov made statements on relations between the two countries.
What explicit and hidden messages were in Lavrov's statement?
Political observer Oktay Qasimov answered these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.
According to him, Lavrov's visit to Azerbaijan was not a visit of great importance.
“It was supposed to be a regular protocol meeting. Since, the fulfillment of the tasks arising from the declaration on allied cooperation signed between Azerbaijan and Russia on February 22, it was envisaged to hold appropriate meetings for the purpose of holding discussions.
However, after Brussels summits between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in April and May, mediated by the head of the European Council (EU) Charles Michel, the Russian side was clearly nervous. And so much so that did not hesitate to openly express its dissatisfaction with the manifestation of the EU initiative,” the expert said.
He recalled that later, commenting on the results of the negotiations in Brussels, mediated by the head of the European Council Charles Michel, Lavrov recalled the agreements previously reached by the leaders of Armenia, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan, in particular, on the creation of a commission on demarcation and delimitation of the border. The same issue was raised in Brussels, he noted.
“I would very much like our European colleagues to understand that this channel has already been created by the three leaders in 2020 and 2021, and that they will not put any obstacles, dams and something else in this channel,” added the head Russian Foreign Ministry.
In his opinion, Russia is demonstrating that it will not tolerate the processes beyond its control in the South Caucasus, which it considers its sphere of influence.
“Thus, the main purpose of Lavrov's visit to Baku was to keep the situation under control. It is also possible that this visit is connected with Russia's search for ways to circumvent sanctions,” he said.
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