Putin to meet Armenian, Azeri leaders next week -Tass

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a trilateral summit on Monday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the wake of major clashes between the two ex-Soviet neighbours, Tass said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a trilateral summit on Monday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the wake of major clashes between the two ex-Soviet neighbours, Tass said on Friday. Tass cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the meeting would go ahead but gave no details.

The worst fighting between the two countries since a 2020 war erupted last month, killing more than 200 people. The clashes are linked to decades-old hostilities over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.

Earlier this month the two sides agreed a civilian European Union mission should head to the border to assess the situation. Moscow, which has a defence pact with Armenia and a military base there, deployed thousands of peacekeepers to the region after a ceasefire in 2020.

Last month Armenia expressed unhappiness with the response of a Russian-led military alliance to a request for help. Armenia asked the Collective Security Treaty Organisation to intervene, but so far it has just sent a fact-finding team to the region.

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