Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov, Moscow, December 5, 2023

Mr Bayramov,

Friends,

We are glad to welcome you to Moscow for the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Caspian littoral states. We are to consider ways of implementing the agreements reached by our leaders at the Caspian Summit in 2022.

While the ministers of the Caspian Five are meeting here, we would like to take this opportunity to compare notes on bilateral and regional issues. Our relations are on the rise. On October 12, 2023, the leaders of Russia and Azerbaijan spoke on the sidelines of the CIS Summit in Bishkek and confirmed our intention to deepen the alliance and strategic cooperation. The 20th anniversary meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation will take place in three days in Baku. On December 18, 2023, Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov will take part in a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in Moscow. As per tradition, at the beginning of the holiday season later this month, meetings of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and an informal CIS summit will take place in St Petersburg, where we hope to see (as in previous years) President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Russia and Azerbaijan are working on a series of major projects, such as the North-South international transport corridor and many other projects in energy and other areas of economic cooperation. We will exchange opinions on normalising Azerbaijan-Armenia relations. I would like to tell you about the progress in our contacts.  

President Aliyev’s initiative on forming a 3+3 Consultative Regional Platform is already taking shape. It is a promising format involving the three South Caucasus countries and their three neighbours. I would like to hear your views on further steps in this direction.