Azerbaijan on Tuesday said Moscow supports the ongoing yet fragile normalization process with archrival Armenia.
A statement by Azerbaijan's presidency said the remarks were made by Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The statement said Aliyev expressed that Shoigu’s visit created a good opportunity to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest between Russia and Azerbaijan.
Expressing that regular contact between the two countries regarding ongoing processes in the region is important, Aliyev was quoted as saying that Russian-Azerbaijani relations are "developing successfully."
Aliyev noted the successful implementation of the decisions made between the political leadership of both countries, the statement further said, adding that Russia-Azerbaijan ties are an example for "some neighboring states," as well as an "important security factor" in the South Caucasus and the region.
For his part, Shoigu was quoted as saying that relations between the two countries are developing successfully in the fields of regional security, military-technical, transport and economy.
Shoigu further said that very important issues are on the agenda of bilateral cooperation and have been successfully resolved.
He cited the implementation of the North-South Transport Corridor, a 7,200-kilometer (4,473-mile) multimode transportation network, as an example.
"The prospects of cooperation in the ‘3+3' format were discussed at the meeting," the statement added.
Shoigu arrived in Azerbaijan following a working visit to neighboring Iran, where he held talks with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Ahmadian, as well as the head of Iran's General Staff, Mohammad Bagheri, and newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Russia has sought to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between the two ex-Soviet republics but its invasion of Ukraine has since waned its influence in the South Caucasus.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought two wars – in the 1990s and 2020 – over the control of Karabakh, which had been occupied by Armenians but was traditionally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and talks on border demarcation.
Baku in September recaptured the mountainous enclave in a one-day offensive, prompting Moscow to withdraw its peacekeeping troops for good from Karabakh.
Armenia had historically sought protection from Russia but following the Azerbaijani victory it has turned increasingly to the United States and European Union.
Last month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country "needs a new constitution" because the current one "doesn't reflect citizens' vision of the relations with neighboring countries."
The statement came in response to Baku's demand that Yerevan remove from its constitution a reference to the country's 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, which proclaims Armenia's unification with Karabakh as a national goal.
Aliyev has said that reaching a peace agreement with Armenia is impossible until Armenia removes territorial claims to Karabakh from its constitution.
In May, Armenia returned to Azerbaijan four border villages that it had seized decades earlier, with Pashinyan saying the move was part of his efforts to secure peace with Azerbaijan.
In June, Pashinyan said Yerevan was ready to sign a peace agreement with Baku "within a month,” while Aliyev said in July that the text of the agreement could be finalized within a matter of several months.
