Azerbaijan-Armenia: Washington Meeting 'Will Send Message To Putin' — Kauzlarich

The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, are reportedly headed for Washington D.C. next week to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

No details about the upcoming trilateral meeting have been publicly revealed yet. The State Department did not offer any comment when contacted on Thursday,

However, Ned Price, the Department's spokesperson, told TURAN's correspondent during Tuesday's daily press briefing that Washington remained "committed to Armenian-Azerbaijan peace and negotiations between the two countries."

"We will do what it is we deem most useful to bring about the cause of lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Price said early this week when asked about potential communications between the secretary and foreign ministers.

Blinken has already held talks with Bayramov and Mirzoyan both in person (in New York on September 19), and by phone (on October 4th) in a trilateral format.

The upcoming ministerial meeting, however, comes just days after Russia's Vladimir Putin hosted Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders to try to broker a settlement to a longstanding conflict, but announced no breakthrough.

For long-time South Caucasus watchers, such as Richard Kauzlarich, who served as Bill Clinton's ambassador to Azerbaijan (1994–1997), the event in DC  "sends a message to Putin that the U.S. is still engaged in the South Caucasus."

"Venue matters for optical reasons," Kauzlarich told TURAN's Washington correspondent.

Coming soon after Sochi, Washington also wants to "end the carousel of forum shopping Armenia and Azerbaijan engage in to avoid face-to-face negotiations." Kauzlarich said.

Asked about Washington's objectives in hosting next talks, Kauzlarich reiterated: "I'm not sure what the US objectives are other than signaling Moscow and pushing the parties to get off the forum-hunting carousel and resume direct talks leading to a peace agreement,"

The diplomat went on to add, "I have no insight into thinking in Washington about this. The fact that it is at the Ministerial level (not President/PM) leads me to think that the best result would be some vague commitment to further bilateral meetings"

Per Kauzlarich, the outcome of Sochi was unclear, but it is clear that Putin did not get what he wanted from either side. "I doubt the Washington meeting will change anything out of Sochi," he concluded.

The Washington talks will also showcase the Biden administration's efforts and leadership on the eve of a congressional hearing in which the State Department's Caucasus negotiator Philip Reeker and Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried will testify publicly. According to the Senate schedule, the Foreign Relations Committee will debate "U.S. Policy in the Caucasus" on November 16.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.