News - Kommersant: Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty could be signed shortly after New Year's Day

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was in Russia on a two-day visit, during which he shook hands with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the informal CIS summit in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday. The two parties continue active work on the peace treaty, which may be signed "shortly after New Year's Day," according to the sources of Kommersant newspaper. At the end of the year, despite the constant setbacks and pauses in the South Caucasus negotiation process, before the CIS summit held in Saint Petersburg, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev were closer than ever to signing a peace treaty and putting an end to the 30-year conflict. "Unlike all the previous meetings—and there were five of them in the passing year, the current contact in Saint Petersburg was the first after the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic ceased to exist in September after a one-day military operation by Azerbaijan," Kommersant added.