White House National Security Adviser Hosts a Meeting Between Armenian, Azerbaijani Security Officials

WASHINGTON, DC — On September 27, US President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hosted a meeting between the Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan and the Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev at the White House.

Sullivan described the trilateral meeting as “constructive.”

“We discussed the importance of avoiding further violence and pursuing time-bound and focused negotiations,” he wrote on Twitter. “We also identified concrete steps forward in support of a stable and lasting peace.”

Sullivan did not reveal those steps or give other details.

In a Facebook post, Grigoryan said the talks focused on a “long-term peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” and the “establishment of peace in the region.”

For his part, Hajiyev was reported to say that the three sides discussed a peace treaty and transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as the demarcation of their border. He did not elaborate.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly met with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York on September 19. Blinken urged them to meet again before the end of September.

The New York talks came just days after heavy fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border left at least 280 soldiers from both sides dead. Azerbaijani troops reportedly attacked and seized some of the Armenian army positions there.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price insisted on Monday that Azerbaijan should “return troops to their initial positions.” “The use of force is not an acceptable path,” he said.

Price also said that Washington will “continue to engage and encourage the work needed to reach a lasting peace because there can be and there is no military solution to this conflict.”

Grigoryan and Hajiyev held three meetings in Brussels earlier this year. They were mediated by a senior European Union diplomat.