Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and a senior U.S. diplomat on Monday discussed the normalization period, as well as a potential peace treaty, between his country and its neighbor Armenia, Aliyev’s office announced in a statement.
"The sides exchanged views on the meeting held in Washington between the foreign ministers regarding the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and negotiations on a peace treaty," read the statement.
The U.S. senior adviser for Caucasus negotiations, Philip Reeker, conveyed the greetings of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Aliyev who expressed his "gratitude" for the greetings and responded in kind, Aliyev’s office added.
"Secretary Blinken's constant attention to the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan was highly appreciated," the statement highlighted.
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 following the collapse of the USSR, when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions, which hit by a conflict that claimed around 30,000 lives.
The two countries fought two wars over the disputed territory in the 1990s and again in the autumn of 2020 when six weeks of particularly intense clashes saw over 6,500 lives lost before a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities.
Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Russia stationed peacekeepers to oversee the fragile cease-fire.
There have been frequent exchanges of fire at the Caucasus neighbors' border since the 2020 war.
Earlier this month, Baku and Yerevan traded accusations of provoking a shootout along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in what was dubbed the worst fighting between the two since 2020 and resulted in the death of over 280 people from both sides.
Hours later, Blinken hosted the foreign ministers of the rival nations in Washington for talks on a possible peace treaty. The ministers agreed to expedite negotiations and continue engaging in direct dialogue and diplomacy.
A week prior, Baku, Yerevan and Moscow had adopted a tripartite declaration in Sochi that stipulated neither side would use force and stick to earlier agreements that sought to end their conflict.
Meanwhile, Aliyev held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s envoy for the normalization of ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia, to implement the terms of the Sochi deal and oversee the safety of his country’s border with Armenia.
However, last Friday, the Azerbaijani leader called off a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinian that was supposed to take place on Dec. 7 in Brussels after the Armenian leader demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron mediate the discussion. Azerbaijan accuses France of backing Armenia in its decadeslong conflict over Karabakh, as well as having adopted an "anti-Azerbaijan position."
Separately, the EU's special representative for the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, reflected on talks held on Nov. 17 between Aliyev and an EU delegation.
While noting that many challenges remain, Klaar said on Twitter that Aliyev had committed to the "EU-facilitated format" of talks with Armenia.
"Restraint and strong political will be needed by Azerbaijan and Armenia to reduce tensions to achieve a comprehensive settlement," he added.
Aliyev had received the EU delegation led by Dirk Schuebel, the bloc's special envoy for its Eastern Partnership initiative, pointing out the need to modernize bilateral talks under the EU effort.