Lavrov: Russia expects a meeting in the "3+3" format in the near future

ArmInfo. Russia expects the next meeting in the "3+3" format (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran, Turkey) to take place in the near future. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the high-level plenary session of the IV Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.

"In the South Caucasus, the 3+3 regional cooperation platform—Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia—the countries of the South Caucasus and their three large neighbors—Russia, Iran, and Turkey, has become a promising platform. The participants of this platform agreed to advance a unifying agenda. We hope that the next meeting in this format will take place soon," he said, according to TASS.

It should be noted that the first meeting of the 3+3 regional platform The platform was held on December 10, 2021, in Moscow and co-chaired by the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, and the Director General of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that representatives of Georgia, who were also invited, abstained from participating in the meeting, but the door is always open to them.

Following this, in 2023 in Iran, and in 2024 in Turkey, meetings of representatives of this platform were held at the level of the foreign ministers of five countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Georgia again did not participate in the platform's work. The parties agreed to hold the next meeting in either Baku or Yerevan. However, a final agreement on the location has not yet been reached.