Russia remains ready to assist Armenia and Azerbaijan in restoring transport and economic links and addressing humanitarian issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
According to TASS, Lavrov made the remarks during a joint press conference with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
“Russia consistently supports the efforts of Azerbaijan and Armenia aimed at achieving a full and comprehensive normalisation of relations, based on the trilateral high-level agreements reached in 2020 and 2022. As before, we stand ready to assist both Baku and Yerevan in unblocking transport and economic links and in resolving humanitarian issues,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also spoke about the 3+3 regional consultative format, comprising Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran and Türkiye, saying it has considerable potential to promote regional cooperation.
“We also discussed attempts by Western countries to use the South Caucasus as an arena for geopolitical confrontation. In this context, we see significant potential for regional cooperation within the framework of the 3+3 platform, which brings together the three South Caucasus countries — Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia — and their neighbours, Russia, Iran and Türkiye,” he said.
Lavrov added that the mechanism is designed to help the countries of the region and their neighbours address regional challenges without external destabilising interference. According to TASS, Lavrov and Bayramov also discussed trade, economic and sectoral cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as current regional and international issues.
The 3+3 format is a regional consultative platform established to promote security, the unblocking of transport and economic links, and broader regional cooperation in the South Caucasus.
The initiative was proposed by Türkiye and Azerbaijan following the 2020 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh and was supported by Russia and Iran.
Although originally conceived as a 3+3 format, the mechanism has effectively operated as a 3+2 format, as Georgia has consistently declined to participate, citing Russia’s occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The other participants have maintained that the door remains open for Georgia to join. To date, several meetings have been held at the level of foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers, including in Moscow in December 2021, Tehran in October 2023 and Istanbul in October 2024, where a joint declaration was adopted.
Discussions are currently under way regarding the venue and sequence of the next ministerial meetings involving Armenia and Azerbaijan.
