WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on Monday, the first face-to-face talks between representatives of the two countries since last week’s border fighting, the government said. state department.
Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a ceasefire last Wednesday after two days of clashes – the most violent since the conflict in the fall of 2020 – linked to the dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The two Caucasian republics reject responsibility for these new fights. Yerevan put forward a toll of 135 Armenians killed in the fighting and Baku for its part reported 77 dead in its ranks.
Antony Blinken met Ararat Mirzoyan, the Armenian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Jeyhun Bayramov, his Azerbaijani counterpart, on the sidelines of the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations which is being held in New York.
The US Secretary of State stressed the need to prevent further fighting and urged the two countries to resume the peace process, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“They discussed next steps, and the Secretary (of State) encouraged the two sides to meet again before the end of the month,” Ned Price said.
(Report Rami Ayyub and Kanishka Singh; French version Camille Raynaud)