Putin to meet with Armenian, Azeri leaders in effort to ease border tensions

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will host a summit between Armenia and Azerbaijan Monday in Russia in an effort to ease tensions between the two former Soviet Republics.

Putin will meet with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Sochi, according to the Kremlin press service. He reportedly is interested in peace between those two countries even as he continues his aggressive war on Ukraine.

"It is planned to consider the implementation of the trilateral agreements between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021, further steps to strengthen stability and security in the Transcaucasus," the statement said.

Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted again in September when a firefight broke out in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The two countries have repeatedly clashed over a disputed region.

Putin said Russia is trying to normalize relations between the nations, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

"As for a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, we have been making every effort to achieve a comprehensive normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan," Putin said, according to Tass.

Putin said Russia would like to see the Caucasus as a calm and steadily developed region.

Pashinyan and Aliyev met in Prague earlier this month with European Union Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

In September, Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a U.S. congressional delegation to Armenia to show support in the border clashes with Azerbaijan. In a statement she said then that there's a strong U.S. commitment to security, economic prosperity and democratic governance in Armenia and the Caucasus region.