Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan met in the Russian resort city of Sochi for peace talks hosted by Russian president Vladimir Putin. However, the negotiations, described as productive by the Kremlin, have so far failed to yield a breakthrough.

“We all agree that this was a very useful meeting,” Putin said. “In my opinion, it created a very good atmosphere for potential agreements on a number of vital issues.” The Russian leader added, without elaborating, that sticking points remain for both parties: “I must say that not everything was agreed upon, and some things had to be removed from the text, which was compiled by experts in advance.”

The two sides agreed in a joint statement published on Monday to refrain from the use of force and to resolve all issues “solely on the basis of mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, in accordance with the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration.”

Deadly large-scale border clashes broke out between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in September. Both sides accused one another of unprovoked shelling, with Yerevan claiming Azerbaijani forces have occupied up to ten square kilometers of Armenian territory. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked for decades in a conflict over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. That dispute prompted two destructive wars in 1988 and 2020. The 2020 conflict ended in a fragile Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement establishing the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ceasefire was followed by numerous reports of shelling, skirmishes, and cross-border raids.

Pashinyan, who previously criticized the role played by Russian peacekeepers, said he is ready to extend their mission by up to two decades. Putin gave reporters a noncommittal answer on the fate of Russia’s peacekeeping mission. “As far as the issue of peacekeepers is concerned, it is outlined in our joint statement dated November 2020, [issued] when the conflict was over. There is nothing to add here,” he said on Monday, according to Russian state news outlet TASS. “We have discussed it. But our joint agreement is necessary for that.” Putin suggested, without providing further details, that the status of the peacekeeping effort hinges on a broader peace treaty and a mutually agreeable delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Mark Episkopos is a national security reporter for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.