Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in the Russian Federation, Sochi, on a working visit.

A trilateral meeting between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the President of the Russian Federation and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan is scheduled here.

A private conversation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will also take place.

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The trilateral meeting of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is taking place in Sochi, Russia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan particularly said in his speech, “Honorable Vladimir Vladimirovich, first of all let me thank you for the invitation and organization of this meeting. But before moving on to today's agenda, let me express condolences on behalf of my and the Armenian people over the explosion in Kuzbass. Many people were killed, and I want to express my solidarity with the families and relatives of the victims.

Your personal role and the role of the Russian Federation in stopping last year's war is obvious. Following November 9, Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh, along the Lachin corridor. It is obvious that the Russian peacekeepers, the Russian Federation, play a key role in stabilizing the situation in Nagorno Karabakh and the region, but I want to emphasize that, unfortunately, the situation is not as stable as we would like it to be.

Dozens of people have died from both sides since November 9 last year. The incidents take place both in Nagorno Karabakh and after May 12 this year, we actually have a crisis situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border as well. Our assessment is that the Azerbaijani troops have invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia. Of course, the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not delimited or demarcated, but the state border exists, it is the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

I do not agree with the statement of the President of Azerbaijan that all the points, except for the unblocking of communications, have already been implemented. You know, we have discussed this with you many times, both face to face and over the phone, that there is also the issue of prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees. This is a very important humanitarian issue, I want to say that we have gathered today not only to raise the issues, but also to talk and discuss the existing issues.

I have also stated many times that Armenia is ready to start the process of border delimitation and demarcation. The issue of unblocking all transport and economic infrastructures is also very important for us, we are sincerely interested in solving these issues. I hope that today we will discuss all these issues, and you mentioned the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict during your meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, and the President of Azerbaijan just talked about the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, of course, we are also interested in that. We believe that the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should take place within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ format, but I think that many issues can be discussed, resolved in a trilateral format, in a bilateral format.

I must say that direct contacts are already being loomed between the Armenian and Azerbaijani officials, and I think that this should also be emphasized against the background of not so good and positive nuances. These positive nuances should also be emphasized. And most importantly, I want to reiterate, I think that the main purpose of today's meeting is not only to speak about the presence or absence of specific issues, but the main point is that today we can come to concrete or as concrete decisions as possible for achieving stability in South Caucasus, since peace, stability and people’s safety is our responsibility”.

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The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev adopted a joint statement based on the trilateral meeting. The statement particularly runs as follows,

“We, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia N.V.Pashinyan, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan I.H. Aliyev, President of the Russian Federation V.V.Putin, met on November 26 in Sochi and discussed the implementation process of the declaration of November 9, 2020 on the complete ceasefire and termination of all types of military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and the implementation process of the January 11, 2021 statement on unblocking all economic and transport infrastructures of the region.

We reaffirmed commitment to the further and consistent implementation and unconditional observance of all the provisions of the November 9, 2020 declaration and January 11, 2021 statement for the benefit of the stability, security and economic development of the South Caucasus. We agreed to intensify joint efforts aimed at the immediate solution of the remaining issues arising from November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 statements.

We mentioned the significant contribution of the Russian peacekeeping mission in stabilizing the situation and ensuring security in the region.

We agreed to take steps to increase the level of stability and security on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, to push the process of establishment of a bilateral commission with the advisory participation of the Russian Federation based on the application of the sides, on delimitation, and afterwards demarcation, of the state border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

We highly appreciated the activity of the trilateral working group on unblocking all economic and transport communications of the region, established in accordance with the January 11, 2021 statement under the joint chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation. We stressed the need to launch specific programs as soon as possible, aimed at identifying the economic potential of the region.

The Russian Federation will continue to provide the necessary assistance for normalizing relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia, building an atmosphere of trust between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, and establishing good-neighborly relations in the region."

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The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev summed up the results of the trilateral meeting in Sochi and made statements for the press.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement runs as follows,

“Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Let me thank you once again for the invitation, and of course, for the positive working atmosphere.

I want to confirm that we had a very positive meeting, conversation, actually discussed all the issues on the agenda. This was not a meeting to hide the problems, but a meeting where we openly discussed all the issues. And I would like to positively assess the fact that we clarified the positions on many issues, and it turned out that we do not have any misinterpretation on a number of issues, opposite to what it seemed before this meeting.

I would like to mention that, in fact, in connection with the opening of all transport and economic communications in the region, we registered that we have a shared idea of how those communications will operate.

The topic of starting the process of delimitation and demarcation is not new, we have discussed that issue. We also adopted a trilateral statement, in which we stated that before that the necessary conditions should be created, that is, security mechanisms should be created on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Of course, humanitarian issues were also touched upon.

In general, I assess today's conversation and meeting very positive. I would like to once again thank our strategic ally, the Russian Federation, for the initiative. I think that if we manage to establish certain dynamics of our dialogue on the basis of this meeting, we can also expect concrete results.

I reaffirm the readiness of Armenia and the Government of Armenia, which has received a mandate from the people of Armenia, to open an era of peaceful development for our country and our region. We are interested in that, and of course, today's meeting contributed to the fulfilment of that agenda.

Thank you”.

Vladimir Putin presents olive branches symbolizing peace to Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev during the statement summarizing the trilateral meeting.

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Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

Greeting Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Putin said,

“Honorable Nikol Vovaevich,

I want to thank you once again for being here, in Russia today. And as we said after our trilateral meeting, and I think you also agree, the meeting was useful and timely, taking into account everything that is taking place, took place earlier, and is taking place today. That is the reason we are gathering to prevent any tragic incident at the border, between the peoples of the two countries in general, in order to move forward. Of course, all the countries of the region are interested in it - Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Let's hope that the agreements reached today will develop in a positive way in the very near future, as soon as possible.

As for our bilateral relations, we have talked about it a lot, I would like to emphasize once again that the relations between Russia and Armenia are of a strategic, allied nature, have deep historical roots. We value it very much and we will do our best to maintain that level of interaction.

As for economy, Russia is Armenia's largest trade and economic partner, the largest investor in the Armenian economy. Of course, last year the trade turnover slightly decreased, but this year it is developing at an accelerated pace, and we hope that it will not only reach the level of the pre-pandemic period, but we will go ahead.

As we had agreed, before the trilateral meeting we had a bilateral meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, you knew that. We had agreed to work in that mode. And now, after the trilateral meeting, we have the opportunity to talk bilaterally, to talk and discuss the whole complex of our bilateral relations. You are welcome."

Thanking for the warm reception, Nikol Pashinyan said,

“Honorable Vladimir Vladimirovich,

I would like to thank you once again for the invitation and organization of today's meetings. Of course, our bilateral relations are very important. You have already emphasized that the relations between Armenia and Russia are strategic and allied. We have a rich agenda in all areas. In practice, we cooperate, we have an agenda within the CSTO, CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union.

But it must be admitted that in all our recent meetings and conversations, we have mostly discussed the regional agenda, since thy are very interrelated topics. I would like to again reiterate your role in ending the 44-day war and deploying Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is a very important stabilizing and security factor in our region. Today you repeatedly stressed the need for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and this issue has always been discussed during our bilateral meetings.

But since we already talked about regional issues today, I would like to note that despite economic or other difficulties, some activation of Russian investments in the Republic of Armenia in 2021 is notable. In general, this is a signal to investors that the Republic of Armenia is a very reliable country in the regional context, and this is definitely a very strong message for us.

Unfortunately, the economic difficulties associated with Covid-19 continue, but recently we were pleased to note that activation of trade was recorded within the Eurasian Economic Union. This is also very important. I hope that we will finally be able to reach a solution to the issue of opening economic and transport communications in our region, which will lead to the activation of trade and economic ties within the Eurasian Economic Union and bilateral relations between Armenia and Russia.
Thanks again. ”

The President of the Russian Federation added, “I completely agree with you, those communications, the transport routes, which we talked about today in trilateral format, are extremely important. By the way, they are important for the economies of all the countries in the region, including Russia, as we are interested that the ways that connect us with our strategic partner, with Armenia, be reliable, comprehensive, and most importantly, easily operating all year round. I hope we will enter the final stage of that work. There are some issues that need additional coordination, but during today's meeting it became clear that they are not of uncompromising nature.

As for the purely economic, pragmatic issues, we can say that they are, in fact, agreed. That is why I have no doubt that there will be a noticeable positive shift in the near future. You are absolutely right and I agree with you when you said during the trilateral discussion today that as soon as people see that all this is giving results, a different atmosphere will be formed in the region. There is no doubt here.

I would like to thank you once again for today’s constructive conversation. We still have the opportunity to talk about our bilateral issues. We are in regular contact, we meet quite often, we are in constant contact by phone. Today we have the opportunity to talk in person, so we can take advantage of that opportunity.

Thank you. "