Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk told reporters that he will discuss, with Azerbaijan next week, the matter of unblocking of transport communications in the South Caucasus, TASS reports.

“I have a meeting also with the Azerbaijani side at the end of next week. We will discuss there as well these matters [i.e. the unblocking of transport communications in the South Caucasus]. So, there is movement,” Overchuk said.

“It will be in Russia,” he replied when asked about the venue of this meeting.

Also, the Russian deputy premier noted that there is a trilateral working group at the level of the deputy PMs of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan, and it is working on the implementation of the ninth point of the trilateral statement by the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan in 2020, and has discussed in detail all the nuances of the unblocking of transport communications in the South Caucasus.

"Therefore, of course, we [i.e. Russia] are interested in knowing how much progress the parties have made in resolving the issues that were discussed within the framework of the trilateral working group. Some nuances touch upon the interests of the Russian Federation in the South Caucasus, primarily from the point of view of the development of railway communication. Therefore, it will be very interesting for us to hear whether solutions have been found to these nuances," Overchuk added.

"In that case, of course, if all these matters are resolved, then we shall already move this to the level of feasibility studies, consider the economics of these projects, and deal with unblocking. But this will again require trilateral efforts within the framework of our cooperation with Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has been and is," the Russian deputy premier concluded.