Blinken speaks to Azeri, Armenian leaders about peace talks

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and reaffirmed Washington's support for a peace treaty between the South Caucasus neighbors, the U.S. State Department said on Sunday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at loggerheads over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. In December 2023, the two countries reached an agreement on taking confidence-building steps by releasing prisoners of war following their first-ever direct negotiations with no mediators involved.

On Friday, the two countries agreed on the delimitation of the state border, a move welcomed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Armenia has reportedly agreed to return four villages to Azerbaijan, an important step in the normalization of relations between the two countries.

The UN chief said he welcomes the normalization process.

A man walks past a house damaged during clashes in the Tartar district bordering the Nagorno-Karabakh region, September 29, 2020. /Xinhua

Blinken spoke to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday and urged him "to keep up the momentum with his Armenian counterpart, reiterating U.S. willingness to support those efforts," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Aliyev's press service said on Sunday that the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will soon hold a meeting in Almaty in Kazakhstan to continue negotiations.

"The president considers an important step that ... Azerbaijan and Armenia have begun the process of border demarcation," Russia's Interfax news agency cited the press service as saying.

Moscow earlier made a similar announcement, expressing hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan could continue peace talks.

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)