Did the US and Russian Presidents Discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh Issue? Analyzes Suren Sargsyan

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met yesterday in Geneva. In an interview with ArmDaily.am, political scientist Suren Sargsyan stated that he did not have high expectations from this meeting.

“I particularly did not have great expectations from the meeting because it is clear that the leaders of two superpowers are meeting and there are hundreds of issues on the agenda. Of course, Russian media reported that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue would also be discussed, but there is still no information in the media about whether the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was raised and neither Biden nor Putin addressed it during the press conference. At this point, we do not have clear information on how they spoke, how they discussed it, or whether they even discussed it at all. In any case, there were reports in the Russian media that the issue was discussed,” Sargsyan said.

The political scientist noted that he has no expectations because Armenian diplomacy should have been more active, taking advantage of the unique opportunity of the leaders' meeting to derive some benefits, but unfortunately, we do not have such opportunities; we lack diplomacy, which is exactly why the situation is as it is.

“If this was an important issue for us, and an important meeting, we could have discussed agenda items through our partners and requested that they address the issue with our partners, but as far as I understand, there has been no initiative from our side,” Sargsyan noted.

Regarding changes in US-Russian relations, Sargsyan believes that he does not anticipate any progress. The political scientist emphasizes that there are problems in the relationship between the two countries that can be collaborative in terms of common interests, as there are significant contradictions between these two superpowers, but there are also common interests and a shared understanding of global processes regarding the unique influence of the two countries.

“Of course, the problems will not be resolved; they are issues related to principles for both sides, but there are areas where collaboration is possible, and we hope that this cooperation will be beneficial for all parties involved, including Armenia, if we can position our interests within the context of their common interests,” Sargsyan noted.

Addressing the relations between the two superpowers and Turkey, as to whether their perspectives align with regard to the question concerning Turkey, Sargsyan stated that Turkey is a strategic ally of the US, although the relationship between the two countries is going through one of its most complicated phases.

“Turkey is a strategic ally for the United States, although the relations between these two states are currently quite poor. For Russia, Turkey is a rival state and a serious competitor; it is an independent player. It is not the case that Turkey is dependent on either of them; it plays both sides quite well and uses skilled diplomacy effectively,” Sargsyan concluded.