The United States has submitted its proposals to Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to resolve some of the most contentious issues as part of the work on the peace agreement, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US Department of State Dereck Hogan said on Tuesday.
According to the US official, as quoted by TASS, some progress has been made in the negotiation process between the two countries.
“The secretary hosted the two foreign ministers in early May to work through some of the most contentious issues including, for example, the distancing of forces along the border, dispute resolution mechanism in the treaty that we are trying to facilitate agreement on…” Hogan said at a Subcommittee Hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
According to Hogan, there were “intense diplomatic contacts between the two sides” at the meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan in Washington. “We are now figuring out what can be done on the most contentious issues,” he added.
“We put forward a number of proposals that gave the two sides perhaps some bridging language there. So they’ve been taking that back and studying it,” the State Department official said.
Hogan said he had spoken to the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers last week in a bid to find “areas where progress can be made”.
Speaking about the meeting between the leaders of Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, expected to take place in Chisinau on June 1 with the participation of European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Hogan said the talks would “focus on what needs to be done to actually get this across the finish line.”
“We still have a long way to go…” he added.