On Monday, January 11, a trilateral meeting of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia took place in Moscow, following which Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan signed a statement on the development of Karabakh.

Later, the Russian president held separate talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart and with the Armenian prime minister.

During the meeting, the heads of state discussed the implementation of the peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh and further steps to resolve the problems in the region.

The negotiations lasted almost four hours, and as a result a joint statement was signed, which outlined the order of work of the parties on the economic development of the region.

“I mean concrete steps to build economic ties, develop infrastructure projects.

For this purpose, a working group will be created, which will be headed by deputy prime ministers of three governments: Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, ”Putin said at a joint press conference.

“In the near future they will create working expert subgroups, present concrete plans for the development of transport infrastructure and the economy of the region,” he added.

The text of the statement published later by the leaders of the three countries says that the working group on the development of Karabakh will hold its first meeting by January 30.

Based on the results of the group meeting, a list of the main areas of work will be formed.

Among the priorities is the establishment of rail and road connections.

The group will also determine "other directions as agreed between the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation."

Along with this, the co-chairs of the working group will approve the composition of expert subgroups to work in these areas "from among the officials of the competent authorities and organizations."

By March 1, for approval at the highest level, a list and schedule for the implementation of measures should be submitted, involving the restoration and construction of new transport infrastructure facilities necessary to ensure international transport through Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Recall that on November 10, 2020, the ceasefire agreement signed by Pashinyan, Aliyev and Putin in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which, in particular, implies the cessation of hostilities in the region, the exchange of prisoners and the presence of Russian peacekeepers on the contact line, entered into force.

Following the January meeting, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia gave their assessment of the negotiations.

Aliyev noted that “the meeting was very important in order to ensure further sustainable and safe development” of the region.

According to him, the fact of a new meeting of the three leaders speaks of their focus on results.

The President of Azerbaijan noted that the participants in the talks "are disposed to draw a line under the actions that took place in September-November."

“The statement that was signed today speaks of our intentions, because one of the points of the statement following the cessation of hostilities was the unblocking of transport communications,” Aliyev said.

He added that this area "can give great dynamism to the development of the region, as well as strengthen security," since the opening of transport communications "meets the interests of the peoples of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia."

Aliyev also expressed confidence that neighboring countries will also "actively participate in the creation of transport corridors and the creation of an extensive network of transport arteries" in the region.

In turn, Pashinyan noted that the parties "managed to generally ensure the ceasefire regime."

At the same time, according to the Armenian Prime Minister, “there are still a lot of issues to be resolved”.

He stressed that one of these issues is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The prime minister stated that Armenia "is ready to continue negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, in particular on this issue."

He also mentioned the situation with the prisoners of war, calling it "sensitive and painful."

“We agreed that we will continue to work in this direction.

We believe, in particular, that the eighth paragraph of our joint statement (signed on the night of November 10 -

RT

), unfortunately, is not being fully implemented.

I hope that we will be able to come to a concrete decision as soon as possible, ”Pashinyan said.

He added that the implementation of the agreements of the new trilateral statement "can simply change the economic image and appearance of ... the region, and economic innovations can lead to even more reliable security guarantees."

The prime minister noted that Armenia is ready to work constructively in this direction.