Azerbaijan-Armenia: U.S. Says Will Remain 'Very Much Engaged' To Help Bring About Peace

The State Department on Tuesday said that it has "been routinely engaged, and we will remain very much engaged" with Azerbaijan and Armenia "bilaterally, trilaterally, through the OSCE, through other partners as well," to help bring about peace, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We continue to maintain our commitment to promoting a secure, stable, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful future for the South Caucasus region." Ned Price, the Department's spokesperson, told TURAN's correspondent during his daily press briefing.

"We continue to engage bilaterally with likeminded partners like the European Union and through international organizations like the OSCE to facilitate direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia to find solutions to all outstanding issues relating to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Price added.

The spokesperson reminded that there were a couple of occasions where Secretary Blinken himself had an opportunity to bring together his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"We did so once here in Washington at Blair House late last year. We did so once in New York City on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September.... We will continue to do what, in our estimation, has the best prospects of moving forward that vision of a secure, stable, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful South Caucasus region," Price said.

He went on to add, "We, of course, want to see the parties make progress themselves. It is not for us to prescribe what a comprehensive solution to this conflict looks like. That is the hard work that the parties themselves will have to do."

Price's comment came just two weeks after the White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan spoke separately with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts, in which he urged the sides to "consider steps to ease tensions."

While the Biden administration pledged to "continue to press" Azerbaijan and Armenia to "maintain momentum for negotiation," both sides have refused to meet eye to eye in December on different occasions, despite expectations.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.