Putin reports progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying only technical issues remain

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that "strictly technical" issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours that fought a war over a contested territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that "strictly technical" issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours that fought a war over a contested territory.

Putin met in various formats in Moscow with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, discussing a dispute over a winding road called the Lachin Corridor. That's the only authorized connection between Armenia and the contested territory, Nagorno-Karabakh, and it's a lifeline for supplies to the region's approximately 120,000 people.

Aliyev and Pashinyan, in a broader regional summit meeting Putin hosted in Moscow, lashed out at each other for their positions regarding the land corridor. But Putin said that on the "principal issues, there is an agreement," and later said all that remained were "surmountable obstacles," calling them differences in terminology and "strictly technical." He said representatives of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan would meet in a week to try to resolve the differences.

According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Pashinyan said last Wednesday that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity within Soviet administrative borders. It added that on Monday, Pashinyan said the territory of Azerbaijan that his government is ready to recognize includes Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan said Thursday: "I want to confirm that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity, and on this basis we can say that we are moving quite well towards settlement of our relations."

For his part, Aliyev said Thursday that the Armenian leader's statements ensure that "the issue of agreeing on other points of the peace treaty will go much easier, because it was the main factor on which we could not come to an agreement."

Putin told the leaders a key sign of progress is "an agreement on the fundamental issue of territorial integrity." He added: "And this is in fact the basis for agreeing on other issues of a secondary nature."