Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Meets With French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna

YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on April 27 in Yerevan after calling international attention to rising tensions with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

During the meeting between Pashinyan and Colonna, the two leaders stressed the need for “the immediate implementation of the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the need for Azerbaijan to unblock the Lachin Corridor,” according to an Armenian government statement.

The Hague-based ICJ ruled in February, two months after Azerbaijani protesters blocked the road, that Azerbaijan must “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”

Colonna is on a regional tour including stops in Baku and Yerevan aimed at easing tensions in the South Caucasus.

She and Pashinyan said during their meeting that “unilateral actions by Azerbaijan” were unacceptable, noting that Azerbaijani’s establishment of a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor contradicted the Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement that put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in 2020.

Pashinyan and Colonna “also exchanged thoughts on issues related to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan’s press office said.