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Armenia Ready to Hold Urgent Top-Level Talks With Azerbaijan Amid Border Tensions

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed his readiness to hold emergency talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to de-escalate the tense situation on the border between the two countries, Pashinyan's office said on Saturday.
Sputnik
There are periodic exchanges of fire on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Earlier in September, Baku accused Yerevan of using combat drones against Azerbaijani positions in the Kalbajar District, which injured two Azerbaijani soldiers. Yerevan, for its part, accused Baku of shelling Armenia's border positions, saying that three Armenian soldiers were killed and two others injured.
"President Macron emphasized that the reduction of tension along the borders is a necessity. Prime Minister Pashinyan expressed readiness to hold urgent discussions with the president of Azerbaijan aimed at reducing tension," Pashinyan's office said in a statement.
The Armenian prime minister also confirmed his commitment to the diplomatic solution of all issues, while the French leader expressed his willingness to support the efforts aimed at establishing peace in the region, the statement read.
Later in the day, Pashinyan's office said the Armenian leader had raised the same issues during telephone conversations with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
In 2022, Armenia and Azerbaijan, with mediation by Russia, the United States and the European Union, began discussing a peace treaty. In May 2023, Pashinyan said that Yerevan was ready to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, including the Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Aliyev has said that a peace treaty can be signed in the near future if Armenia does not change its position.
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