Opening of the Lachin corridor for commercial and private vehicles is something Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been pushing very hard on, Dereck J. Hogan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the US Department of State, said during the hearing of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe on Tuesday.
“The Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process is moving forward. The Secretary of State hosted the two Foreign Ministers in early May to work on some of the most contentious issues, including distancing of forces along the border, dispute resolution mechanism in the treaty that we are trying to facilitate agreement on, the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. There are a lot of issues we are working on. We put forward some proposals that gave the two sides some bridging language,” he said.
“Since than we have been working very closely with the European Union. EU Council President Charles Michel hosted the two leaders in Brussels a couple of weeks after we hosted the foreign Ministers. And they will be meeting again with the Chancellor of Germany, the President of France and the President of the EU Council to focus once again on what needs to be done to actually get this along the finish line,” Mr. Hogan noted.
“When it comes to the Lachin corridor, it’s something that the Secretary has been pushing very hard on, particularly when it comes to the opening of the corridor for commercial and private vehicles,” he said.
