The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold new talks on Friday in Moscow, as part of a series of international diplomatic efforts to bring the two neighboring countries in the South Caucasus closer and in light of renewed tension between them, and the talks come as frequent clashes are still recorded in the border areas between the two countries, where an Armenian soldier was killed on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will host on Friday a trilateral meeting and separate bilateral meetings between the foreign ministers of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
In the latest clash between Baku and Yerevan, the Armenian Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers "died while being taken to hospital after being wounded by gunfire by Azerbaijani forces" at the two countries' common border.
Interfax quoted Armenia's defence ministry as saying shells hit the village of Sotak near the border. The agency said Azerbaijan denied the Armenian accusations, calling them "pure lies."
Last week, an Armenian soldier and an Azerbaijani soldier were killed in border clashes, with both sides repeatedly accusing each other of escalating attacks.
The two former Soviet republics fought two wars - in the early nineties of the last century and in 2020 - to control the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inhabited by an Armenian majority and unilaterally seceded from Azerbaijan 3 decades ago.
After a blitzkrieg in which Baku took control of large territories in the region in the fall of 2020, Baku and Yerevan signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire, but the border areas between the two countries continue to witness frequent skirmishes.
Last week's clashes came days before a May 14 meeting in Brussels between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan under European Council President Charles Michel. This was the fifth meeting of its kind within the framework of European mediation.
Washington hosted 4-day talks in early May between delegations from the two countries. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was pleased that "tangible progress had been made" and said a peace deal was possible.
A new meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev is expected to be held on the first of next June in Moldova in the presence of Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the sidelines of a summit of the European political group.
Moscow views Western initiatives with suspicion as the Caucasus as its strategic backyard.