By Mark Dovich
Yerevan hopes to sign a normalization deal with Baku by November and expects steps in that direction at talks later this week in Kazakhstan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has indicated.
“I share the idea of signing a peace agreement by November…and I hope that progress will be made at the upcoming meeting in Almaty,” Pashinyan told reporters during a lengthy and wide-ranging press conference in Yerevan Tuesday.
November is the month Azerbaijan is set to host this year’s United Nations climate talks. That arrangement came about after Baku agreed last year to hand over nearly three dozen Armenian prisoners of war in exchange for Yerevan’s support for the oil-rich country’s bid to host the summit, called COP.
Last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said “reaching an agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia before COP29, at least on basic principles, seems quite realistic.”
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To that end, the two countries’ top diplomats are set to meet Friday in Kazakhstan for their first talks in nearly three months. The exact agenda for the meeting between Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia and Jeyhun Bayramov of Azerbaijan has not been made public.
Last month, Kazakhstan’s president offered to host delegations from the two countries, while stressing his country is only ready to provide a platform for negotiations and does not intend to mediate any talks.
Kazakhstan, the wealthiest and most influential country in Central Asia, maintains warm relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. The country styles itself as a diplomatic hub and previously hosted high-profile international negotiations meant to end the ongoing civil war in Syria.
