Azerbaijan-Armenia: 'More Diplomacy Needed,' Top State Dept Official Says

The top Biden administration official in charge of Europe and Eurasia on Tuesday spoke about the latest military escalation on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, reiterating Washington's efforts to bring the parties together, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports..

"I think the tensions now just point to the importance of more diplomacy," James O'Brien, assistant Secretary of State, told TURAN's correspondent, adding  "we’ll just continue the path of trying to bring the parties together".

O'Brien spoke to reporters as he was on his way to Europe to accompany Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week, who will stop at the Munich Security Conference, an annual assembly of trans-Atlantic powerbrokers and geopolitical tastemakers.

Azerbaiian's Ilham Aliyev, as well as Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan are also expected to join the event, where they last year took part in a trilateral meeting with Blinken.

The assistant secretary, when asked by TURAN, refrained from speculating on any particular engagement in Munich or other recent action.

As for Blinken's agenda at Munich Conference, he said that throughout meetings in Munich, the Secretary will be highlighting four themes, including support for Ukraine, the Middle East, the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the importance of cooperation in international institutions and with states from around the world.'

When asked about the U.S. assurance to allies amid a series of queries prompted recently by former president Donald Trump’s rhetorical blast of them that fail to spend adequately on defense, O'Brien suggested that Trump might have been “expressing his pride that he brought increased investment into the national defense of our allies,” in contrast to more invidious interpretations.

“Even when America has come close to adopting isolationist sentiments, we have always come back to this leadership role,” he added. “That’s the purpose of an alliance — that you know you can count on each other, whatever the headlines are.”

TURAN also asked O'Brien about NATO and Hungary's opposition to Sweden's membership bid.

"I don’t know that we’d characterize it as Hungary opposing," he said, elaborating, "What Prime Minister Orban has said is that – first he said Hungary would not be the last to ratify Sweden, and we hope it will not be the last for long.  And he said as soon as parliament returns in its regular session, which will be next week, the 26th, it will take up the matter.  He anticipates that they’ll approve Sweden’s membership in NATO.  So we’ll expect to hold them to that, and I think that’s the path that we’re on."