The meetings among the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia appear to have improved the mood between the two South Caucasus presidents and restored the central role of the OSCE Minsk Group in future talks among both the presidents and their foreign ministers, Matthew Bryza, former US co-chair of the Minsk Group, former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, director of the Estonian International Centre for Defense and Security, told APA on June 22.
APA quotes Bryza as saying, "Presidents Aliyev and Sargsyan pledged at St. Petersburg to implement the measures to reduce military tension along the Line of Contact, which they agreed in their meeting in Vienna on May 16, and to work toward building the atmosphere required to resume negotiations on a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."
He said that these are all positive developments with regard to the general mood of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but do not mark substantive achievements in moving toward settlement of the conflict.
"Still, the St. Petersburg meeting does appear to have moved the parties to a safer and more stable situation," Bryza stressed.
The expert says that President Putin's motivation appears to convey a signal - especially to EU leaders weighing continued sanctions against Moscow -- that Russia is trying to play the role of peacemaker in the South Caucasus.
To recall, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in Saint Petersburg on June 20 2016 at the behest of Vladimir Putin. Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the conflict. The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg.