Azerbaijan-Armenia: 'Further Progress' Made, But Hard Work Still Ahead, Blinken says 

Washington D.C./30.06.23/Turan:  The top U.S. diplomat said on Thursday that Azerbaijan and Armenia have made “further progress” toward a peace agreement, albeit hard work, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"The closer you get to reaching an agreement, in some cases the harder it gets, because by definition the most difficult issues are left for the end," Secretary of State Antony Blkinken said at the end of the U.S.-hosted three days of talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan.

The State Department described the talks as "constructive," as Spokesperson Matthew Miller put it when responding to TURAN's questions during a daily briefing. Blinken on Thursday met with ministers again — both individually, and all together.

According to Blinken, talks were conducted with "candor, openness and directness," as the two sides had shown a willingness to negotiate seriously with the goal of reaching a deal, and he hoped for further progress in a meeting between the two countries' leaders and the European Union expected to take place in coming weeks.

In the meantime, he stressed that “hard work” remains to be done:   "I appreciated very much the opportunity to spend time with you. As did our team, the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and appreciate again that — as we’ll share in a statement that’ll be released in a little while — further progress toward this shared objective of an agreement, to include agreement on some additional articles, as well as a deepening understanding of the positions on other outstanding issues, as well as a recognition that there remains hard work to be done to try to reach a final agreement."

Neither Bayramov, nor Mirzoyan spoke at the closing ceremony. This week's talks were the second round of negotiations the U.S. has hosted between the two sides in less than two months. Similar talks have been hosted by the EU as well.

"We’ve had a series of meetings not only here but also with our counterparts – hosted by our counterparts in the European Union, to include as well Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev, and we know that a further meeting is expected in a few weeks’ time with the European Union and the president and prime minister," Blinken said.

The Secretary went on to conclude, "We look forward to continuing this process as well in the weeks ahead to take advantage of the momentum that we’ve helped achieve through these meetings, through further agreement on different discrete pieces, with, again, the objective of reaching an overall and final agreement in the weeks and months ahead."

Alex Raufoglu