The United States expects “commercial movement of goods” to start soon in the blocked Lachin Corridor as Washington hosts peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia this week.
In recent months, tensions between the two neighboring, former Soviet republics have increased over Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which is the only land route giving Armenia direct access to the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“About Lachin, we have been very clear throughout the last few months about the importance of ensuring the free movement of commercial and humanitarian traffic and people through the Lachin Corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. We continue to engage in those discussions,” a senior State Department official told reporters Monday in a phone briefing.
“And we expect the commercial movement of goods to pick up and to start in earnest,” that official added.
Early Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate meetings with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Arlington, Virginia.
Blinken then met with both for bilateral peace negotiations at the diplomatic facility near the State Department.
The peace talks to normalize the relationship between the two countries will continue through Thursday.
“We remain committed to facilitating a direct dialogue between both Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said another senior State Department official. He added that Washington hoped the two countries would be able to “strengthen their common economic ties” and “reinforce their collective security in the region.”
Monday’s meetings occurred after Blinken’s call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday, when the top U.S. diplomat reiterated Washington’s call to reopen the land route “to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible.”
The State Department had voiced “deep concern” that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor undermines efforts for peace talks.
A representative from Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mirzoyan’s working visit to the United States is to discuss “the agreement on normalization of relations” with Azerbaijan.
The two countries have had a decadeslong conflict involving the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.
The Lachin Corridor allows supplies from Armenia to reach the 120,000 ethnic Armenians in the mountainous enclave and has been policed by Russian peacekeepers since December 2020.
FILE - A Russian peacekeeper guards the Lachin corridor, the Armenian-populated breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region's only land link with Armenia, Dec. 27, 2022.
The situation has left those ethnic Armenian residents in Nagorno-Karabakh without access to essential goods and services, including life-saving medication and health care, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said Azerbaijan’s government has failed its human rights obligations by taking no action to lift the blockade.
Azerbaijan maintains the land route is open for humanitarian delivery, emergency services and peacekeepers.
In November 2022, Blinken hosted foreign ministers from Armenia and Azerbaijan for peace negotiations at Blair House in Washington, D.C.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Aliyev also held face-to-face meetings hosted by Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February.
Some material in this report came from Reuters.