Putin: Nagorno-Karabakh Situation Developing Towards Conflict Resolution

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is developing towards conflict resolution, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a trilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow.

“In general, in my opinion, despite any difficulties and problems, which are still enough, the situation is still developing towards a settlement. One of these areas is work on transport communications,” Putin said.

The Russian president also stated that both Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed issues “can be resolved.”

“For the most part, they [problems] don't exist, Putin said. "These are purely technical issues."

The trilateral meeting, which saw Putin hold earlier separate talks with the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, came to a close after about 20 minutes.

Not long after, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk detailed that the vice-premiers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan will discuss the border crossing procedure during a meeting next week in Moscow.

"Specifically, we will just talk about what the order of crossing will be and what procedures will be," Overchuk told reporters.

The official added that the leaders will decide if they need to meet again after talks of deputy prime ministers.

The latest comes after the Armenian government revealed it was willing to recognize the disputed territory as Azerbaijani grounds if its neighbor guaranteed ethnic Armenians in the area have their rights and safety respected.