The United States 'welcomes' Türkiye playing a productive role in resolving conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the State Department said on Thursday, following Turkish FM Hakan Fidan's visit to Baku, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"We agree with what the foreign minister [Fidan] said, that peace is possible and we would support direct talks between the two parties to achieve that," Spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing.
Miller's comments came in light of recent engagements between Washington and Ankara. According to the spokesperson, Karakabh topic comes up 'in all the conversations' between between Secretary Blinken and Minister Fidan.
"So I won’t give a specific readout, but that is something that they regularly discuss when they either get together in person or when they talk on the phone," he added.
Miller also spoke about Blinken-Hakan discussions over Sweden’s NATO bid, saying that it should be approved as soon as possible. "It’s long overdue. Sweden is ready to take its place in NATO, and we will continue to engage in conversations with the Turkish Government to push them to approve that accession as soon as possible."
Later on Thursday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden also spoke yesterday with President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan.
"They discussed the importance of strengthening the NATO Alliance, including the importance of welcoming Sweden as an Ally as soon as possible and further enhancing Türkiye’s NATO interoperability, and agreed to remain in close contact in the lead up to the July 2024 NATO Summit in Washington," reads the White House readout.
Biden expressed support for recent constructive steps in the relationship between Greece and Türkiye.
It wasn't immediately clear if the issue of Azerbaijan-Armenia came up during the presidential conversation.
Politics
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Access to the website of the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti has been unblocked in Azerbaijan. Access to the website of this media was blocked after RIA Novosti published an interview with the so-called "state minister" of the former separatist regime in Karabakh Artak Beglaryan in June 2022. Baku regarded this publication as not respecting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by the Russian state media.
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On July 23, a meeting was held at the National Defense University with a delegation of the Chinese Army Academy of Military Sciences, which is on a visit to Azerbaijan. The guests were given a briefing on the history and main activities of the National Defense University. During the meeting, prospects for the development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and China in the field of military education were discussed.
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On July 23, Deputy Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan V. Grushko and S. Sharifov met in Moscow. "The parties discussed the current situation in the South Caucasus and neighboring regions. An exchange of views was held on the issues of the EU and NATO, the situation in the OSCE and the regional activities of the Council of Europe. A number of bilateral and international topics of mutual interest were touched upon.
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After the resumption of the activities of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran, the head of the diplomatic mission, Ali Alizadeh, held meetings with the head of the Eurasian Department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Motjaba Demirchilu, and the head of the Consular Department, Alirza Mahmoudi. İssues of bilateral relations and other topics of mutual interest were discussed at the meetings, the message of the Azerbaijani Embassy.
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