Pashinian, Aliyev Hold ‘Unofficial’ Talks

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian held “unofficial” talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum.

According to the prime minister’s press service, the two leaders touched on the current state of the Karabakh peace talks and future steps to advance that process.

Tuesday’s meeting was the third so-called “unofficial” discussion between the two leaders. The first was in late September during a CIS summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan where they discussed ways to de-escalate tensions along the Artsakh-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Azerbaijan borders.

In mid-October Pashinian reported that as a result of the Dushanbe discussions, a mechanism for “operative” ties was established between him and Aliyev, saying that the effort had yielded positive results. This mechanism has also been hailed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen, who are tasked with mediating the Karabakh conflict.

In December, on the sidelines of an informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Pashinian and Aliyev held another conversation, this time centering on the exchange of captives—or prisoners of war—for which Baku has proposed an even exchange of prisoners being held captives on both sides. At the time, Pashinian reported that no agreement was reached on the issue.