The Russian-brokered trilateral agreement has no alternative in the ongoing conflict between South Caucasus neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan, Moscow said Tuesday in response to peace talks between the rivals hosted by the U.S. this week.
"For the moment, there is no other legal basis that would help a resolution. There is no alternative to these trilateral documents," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Initiatives to lower tensions in the region "are possible above all on the basis of the trilateral documents signed with Russia," he said.
The United States is hosting four-day negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, seeking to quell recent tension over the disputed enclave of Karabakh.
The two sides have gone to war twice, in 1990 and 2020, leaving tens of thousands dead and clashes regularly erupt over the territory, a region internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.
Tensions have spiked again in recent days after Azerbaijan announced it had set up a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor, the only land link between Armenia and Karabakh, sparking an angry response from Yerevan.
Armenia views the move as a violation of the cease-fire negotiated between the two sides.
Moscow brokered a cease-fire between Yerevan and Baku after the latest bout of fighting in 2020 and posted peacekeepers along the Lachin corridor.
With Russia bogged down in Ukraine and unwilling to strain ties with Azerbaijan's key ally Türkiye, the United States and European Union have sought to steer a thaw in ties.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday hosted the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers for dinner and spoke with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, expressing concerns about the checkpoint, which he claims "undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process."
An anonymous U.S. official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the talks aim more at "an agreement on normalization of relations" rather than a peace treaty.
France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna too visited the two countries last week over the border checkpoint, with the purpose "to reaffirm France's support for the Armenian government and people," Colonna said.
She visited Baku and then Yerevan, urging Azerbaijan to restore "unhindered movement" through the Lachin corridor. In Yerevan, she said in a news conference that Armenia's territorial integrity must be respected, despite the checkpoint being in Azerbaijan.
The dispute over the blockade of the Lachin corridor has been brewing a violent strain between the ex-Soviet states since last December, which saw another half a dozen people killed from both sides.
Yerevan, which relies on Russia as a security guarantor, has since grown frustrated over what it sees as Kremlin's failure to fulfill its peacekeeping role.
Azerbaijan has reiterated that it had set up the checkpoint on Azerbaijan's territory and its function is "to prevent the illegal transportation of manpower, weapons, mines" by Armenia. "It does not restrict the road’s use by Armenians in the region," it assured.
But the tension over the corridor has stalled negotiations on a lasting settlement to the Karabakh conflict.
Blinken has already taken part in two trilateral meetings with the two Caucasus rivals, in November last year and then again in February, on the margins of the international security conference in Munich, Germany.
On Saturday, Blinken spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, emphasizing the importance of peace discussions and pledging continued U.S. support.
In January, the EU launched a new civilian mission in Karabakh, which has also drawn the Kremlin’s ire, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accusing the West of "undisguised attempts... to undermine the region’s security architecture."