Azerbaijani, Armenian FMs, U.S. national security advisor discuss normalization process between Baku, Yerevan

BAKU. June 28 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met in the U.S. on Wednesday to discuss the process normalizing relations between Baku and Yerevan, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

"On June 28, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as part of his working visit to the United States. At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the main aspects of the process of normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and on regional security issues. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also attended the meeting," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Bayramov told meeting participants about the situation in the South Caucasus and said that "Armenia's failure to meet its commitments, refusal to fully withdraw troops from Azerbaijani territory and continuing military-political provocations" undermine efforts on peaceful settlement in the region. The reintegration of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan's domestic issue, he said, according to the statement.

Sullivan, for his part, emphasized that Washington would continue supporting activities aimed at signing a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

The Armenian foreign minister, for his part, emphasized once again the importance of addressing the problem of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. "Speaking of Azerbaijan's aggressive actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in the death of four members of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, Mirzoyan stressed that such actions are aimed at derailing the efforts to facilitate the peace process and underlined the need to rule out any use of force," the Armenian Foreign Ministry's press service said.

"Azerbaijan's actions are taking place in parallel with the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from an illegal blocking of the Lachin corridor designed by Azerbaijan to obstruct gas and power supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, which serves the purpose of conducting ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh," Mirzoyan said, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry's press service.

The meeting participants also discussed issues concerning bringing about a lasting peace in the South Caucasus, it said.

Mirzoyan noted the need to achieve the highest degree of certainty in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border delimitation on the basis of the Almaty Declaration and maps of 1975, and the need to withdraw troops, it said.

The sides also touched upon the unblocking of regional infrastructure links, with due consideration of the sovereignty of the countries, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.