Moscow hopes for “3+3” meeting soon: Lavrov

Moscow hopes that a meeting of the “3+3” regional consultative platform (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia plus Russia, Iran and Turkey) will take place soon, Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, said at the high-level plenary session of the Fourth Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.

“The participants of this platform have agreed to promote a unifying agenda. We hope that the next meeting in this format will take place soon,” the minister said.

The six-party format of consultations on cooperation in the South Caucasus and the Middle East (Russia, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) was proposed in late 2020 by Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Georgia has been invited to join the format many times but has not yet taken part in its work. The platform’s first meeting was held in Moscow in December 2021 at the level of deputy foreign ministers. The second meeting, which was also the first at the level of foreign ministers, took place in Tehran in October 2023. The most recent meeting in this format was held in Istanbul on October 18, 2024.