By Mark Dovich
In a sign of Armenia’s increased focus on diplomacy in the region and beyond, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan concluded a working visit to the Netherlands on Thursday, as his foreign minister left for Tajikistan, where he is expected to meet with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts.
“We are determined to open an area of peaceful development for our country and our region,” Pashinyan told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Hague. “We received at last year’s early parliamentary elections…a mandate from our people to adopt and implement the peace agenda.”
Armenia and the European Union, Pashinyan said, “have a common understanding that the peace agenda must be implemented” and that “this is not possible without the support of the international community.”
Armenia is “determined to fully implement the agenda” laid out in the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, which came into force in March, he added.
In turn, Rutte “promised (Pashinyan) that we will support him in every way,” including the Armenian government’s ongoing efforts to “follow the path of democracy,” as well as in “negotiations to reach an agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh in the near future.”
“We support the Minsk Group co-chairs,” Rutte added, a line repeated by officials in Washington and Paris in recent months, amid mounting concern that the dramatic deterioration in relations between the West and Russia over Ukraine are threatening the group’s ability to function.
Moscow has accused the West of “canceling” Russia’s participation in the group, which is co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States and is meant to encourage the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
Pashinyan himself addressed the growing gulf between Russia and the West during his visit to the Netherlands, saying that Armenia “must not only pursue a multilateral policy, but we also must be able to manage the risks” that come with it.
He said that the EU is “Armenia’s main partner in the field of democratic reforms,” while calling Russia “a strategic ally” with which Armenia “has very warm and close relations.”
In a speech to a Dutch think tank, Pashinyan spoke at greater length about the current status of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, accusing the latter of “continuing to pursue a very aggressive policy toward Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov’s recent statement that Baku and Yerevan had not yet reached a “mutual understanding” on Armenia’s 5+6 peace plan proposal “does not correspond to the agreements reached in Brussels,” Pashinyan added.
Pashinyan met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the unofficial European capital last month for a meeting that stretched over four hours, after which the two sides reportedly reached a deal to begin work on a peace treaty.
The 5+6 plan refers to five points put forward by Azerbaijan in March to form the basis of Karabakh peace talks, plus six points issued by Armenia in response last month. Baku has made its five points public, while Yerevan has so far refused to release the content of its six points.
Read more: Armenia, Azerbaijan issue contradictory statements on border delimitation, Karabakh negotiations
According to Pashinyan, Aliyev agreed in Brussels to release the remaining Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan, who number “at least 38,” but has so far failed to release any detainees.
The issue of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan also came up on a Thursday phone call between Aliyev and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The two officials “discussed recent positive momentum and future concrete steps on the path to peace in the South Caucasus, including border delimitation and demarcation, opening transport and communication links, and the release of the remaining Armenian detainees,” a State Department statement said.
It continued: “Secretary Blinken reiterated that the United States stands ready to help by engaging bilaterally and with like-minded partners, including through our role as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, to help the countries find a long-term, comprehensive peace.”
Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan left for Dushanbe, where he is set to meet with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts, Bayramov and Sergey Lavrov.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of a twice-yearly summit that brings together the foreign ministers of member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an intergovernmental organization of nine post-Soviet countries. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are CIS members.
On Thursday afternoon, TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency, said that the meeting will take place Thursday, rather than Friday, as previously reported. It is unclear why the date has been changed.
The foreign trips come amid an uptick in diplomatic activity by Armenia in the region and beyond. In recent months, Pashinyan, Mirzoyan, and other high-level Armenian officials have paid visits to India, Russia, the United States, and several European countries.
In addition, Armenian and Turkish special envoys Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kılıç have so far met three times this year, holding talks on normalizing relations between the two countries.