The United States maintains direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, regardless of where it takes place. Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson of the US Department of State, noted this at Thursday’s Department press briefing, commenting on the meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev slated for May 25 in Moscow.

Patel considered direct talks between the parties “of utmost importance.”

“He [i.e., Luis Bono, US Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations of the US State Department] continues to be deeply engaged in this issue (…). I don’t have specific diplomatic calls to read out, but again, I’ll reiterate that we found the talks that we hosted in early May as constructive. The parties themselves agreed to certain terms and believe have a better understanding of each other’s points of view, and we continue to welcome the continued dialogue on this,” Patel noted.