July 17, 2026 - 18:46 AMT
Moscow hosts Russia-Azerbaijan talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow expects the next ministerial meeting of the regional 3+3 consultative format, involving all six participating countries, to take place in the near future following talks with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Moscow.

"We expect our Azerbaijani and Armenian colleagues to agree on the schedule for the next ministerial meeting soon, after which we will decide whether it will be held in Baku or Yerevan," Lavrov said, according to RIA Novosti.

Lavrov said the 3+3 platform—bringing together Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Türkiye and Georgia—has significant potential to address regional challenges through the efforts of the participating countries themselves, without what he described as external destabilizing interference.

He recalled that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had reaffirmed the importance of the mechanism on July 13, while experts from all six participating countries met on June 5 on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Lavrov also emphasized the value of multilateral cooperation within the Caspian Five, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations.

Speaking at the same news conference, Bayramov said the 44-day war had created new realities and a new regional security architecture. He added that he had briefed his Russian counterpart on the current state of the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process.

"Today it can be said with confidence that de facto peace exists between Baku and Yerevan.

The historic developments that have recently taken place in the normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the initialing of the peace agreement, create a unique opportunity to ensure lasting peace, security and prosperity in the region," Bayramov said.

On August 8, 2025, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint declaration at the White House following their trilateral meeting in Washington. During the visit, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in the presence of the three leaders, initialed the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.