During Thursday’s department press briefing, Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson of the US Department of State, reflected on the South Caucasus and stressed that ensuring a cessation of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, specifically in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, continues to be of great importance to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Patel recalled that Blinken had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of these countries a number of weeks ago on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.

And commenting on the visits of Louis Bono—the OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chair and US Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations—to Armenia and Azerbaijan, the representative of the US State Department said the following: "It’s something that we continue to be deeply engaged on. It’s something that Mr. Bono continues to be engaged on in addition to others in this department as well."

Bono has been in the region since April 14. On Thursday, he was received by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The parties discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the formation of an international dialogue mechanism between Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) as a result of the ongoing Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor, and several other matters.