BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 17. Preparations for the second meeting in the "3+3" format are underway, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said, Trend reports via TASS.
"The 3+3 consultative regional platform (including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran, and Turkey), established in December 2021, is a popular and promising mechanism, which we plan to actively use to develop interaction between the countries of the South Caucasus and their neighbors,” Rudenko noted.
“The logic of such cooperation presupposes a collective consideration of issues that are of common interest, don’t exacerbate political contradictions and contribute to increasing mutual trust,” he said. “This is primarily about finding answers to regional challenges and solving emerging problems by the countries of the region themselves.”
Besides, according to the official, the involvement of all countries of the region in this process creates favorable conditions for establishing a dialogue between Yerevan and Baku, as well Yerevan and Ankara through the implementation of mutually beneficial projects in the areas of trade, energy, industry, innovative technologies, and infrastructure modernization.
"Additional opportunities for cooperation between the countries of the South Caucasus and their neighbors are connected with the disclosure of the transit potential of the region, interaction in the fight against new challenges and threats,” Rudenko said.
According to him, the second meeting in the “3+3” format is expected to be held until the end of the first half of this year.
He reminded that the issue of opening transport and economic communications is being addressed by a specialized trilateral working group co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Much work has been done in this direction. We are moving towards the speedy adoption of a concrete decision which will allow us to start implementing specific projects in the region," concluded the official.