Putin congratulates Azerbaijan, says he is ready to participate in peace talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his country and government remain ready to help Armenia and Azerbaijan speed up peace talks.

Putin made the remarks during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit currently underway in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“We are always ready to continuously support the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and advance the peace agenda,” Putin said.

The Russian leader also praised relations with Azerbaijan, saying that if the two leaders met every month, there would be enough topics to discuss.

“We discussed the North-South project in Moscow last time. There have been positive developments since then, and we will talk about them,” Aliyev was quoted as saying by the APA news agency.

“We are determined to expand the infrastructure of the corridor on the territory of Azerbaijan. Although it exists physically, it does not correspond to the intentions of our partners and neighbors to maximize the use of this project,” the Azerbaijani leader added.

Putin also praised Aliyev for advancing Russian language education in Azerbaijan, with Aliyev promising that his government would consider increasing the use and teaching of Russian in its school system.