OREANDA-NEWS Russia, the United States and the European Union (EU) held secret talks on Nagorno-Karabakh just days before Azerbaijan launched a special operation in the region last month. This is reported by the newspaper Politico.

It is known that this meeting marks a rare contact between Moscow and the West on a serious security issue after February 24, 2022.

A high-ranking diplomat familiar with the discussions told the newspaper that the talks took place on September 17 in Istanbul, the main focus was on the passage of humanitarian convoys from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh in order to provide fuel and food to local residents.

The United States was represented by Senior Adviser for negotiations in the Caucasus Louis Bono, the European Union sent a representative to the region Toivo Klaar, and President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan Igor Khovaev arrived from Russia.

A U.S. State Department official declined to comment on the meeting, calling it a private diplomatic discussion.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the issue of approving a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan is still relevant, despite the decision of the authorities of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) to terminate its existence.

On September 19, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced the start of "local anti-terrorist activities" on the Karabakh territory.

Later, the head of the unrecognized NKR Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree on the termination of the existence of the republic. The population of the region was invited to study the conditions of reintegration presented by Azerbaijan in order to make a decision on the possibility of staying in Karabakh.