Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev are holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand on Friday. Their conversation is taking place against a background of an aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border this week, TASS reports.
As Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, the escalation of border tensions, "of course, will top the agenda."
“We are all concerned with the escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We’ve spoken about this. Yesterday I spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, I’ve informed you about this. It is good that through coordinated efforts it was possible to cease the escalation, but as far as I understand the situation remains tense. I am happy to meet you and to have the chance to speak about all these issues,” Putin said.
Putin stressed that he was glad to have the opportunity to hold an in-person meeting with Aliyev to discuss all the pressing issues.
Earlier, Putin discussed the state of affairs by telephone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. An urgent meeting of the Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been held online.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the Armenian Defense Ministry said, the Azerbaijani military opened heavy fire in the direction of the communities of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk with artillery and large-caliber and light small arms. Aliyev, in turn, said that his country's armed forces were taking retaliatory measures against Yerevan's actions. Both sides have reported military casualties.
