“Just a few days before Azerbaijan’s military attack, US and EU officials met with their Russian counterparts in Turkey to hold secret emergency talks to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” POLITICO reports, “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned conventional diplomacy on its head, and this meeting marked a rare, if unsuccessful, engagement between Moscow and the West on any issue.”
A senior diplomat familiar with the discussions told POLITICO that the meeting took place on September 17 in Istanbul as part of an effort to pressure Azerbaijan to end its nine-month blockade of Karabakh and allow aid convoys from Armenia to pass through. According to the envoy, the main focus of the meeting was on how to get the “damned trucks” to move and provide 100,000 residents with food and fuel.
The USA was represented by Louis Bono, Washington’s senior adviser on negotiations in the Caucasus, the EU by Toivo Klaar, its representative in the region, and Russia by Putin’s special representative, Igor Khovaev.
In the information provided to POLITICO, the EU representative said. “Maintaining communication with interlocutors to avoid misunderstandings is important.”
The official also noted that Klaar has sought to maintain lines of communication on multiple fronts in recent years, including in talks with Khovaev and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.
The representative of the US State Department refused to comment on the meeting, stating: “We do not comment on private diplomatic discussions.”
However, an American official explained on condition of anonymity that the discussions were held based on the understanding that the Kremlin still influences the region, “We must be able to work with the Russians on this issue because they influence the parties, especially now that we are going through a dangerous phase.”
