Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly welcomed the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan—with whom he is holding trilateral talks on Monday—at the Kremlin, TASS reported.

Putin shook Aliyev's hand and hugged him, then greeted Pashinyan in the same way.

Sitting at the table, the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia, however, just greeted each other with their heads.

After the opening speech of the Russian President, the talks continued behind closed doors.

This face-to-face meeting was initiated by Putin. As reported earlier by the Kremlin press service, the parties plan to discuss the implementation of the statement on Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] signed by the leaders of the three countries on November 9, 2020, and further steps to resolve the problems in the region.

These politicians are expected to pay special attention to providing assistance to residents of war-torn areas, as well as to unblocking and developing the trade, economic, and transport links.