On November 8, in a traditional press conference, Ned Price, the official representative of the State Department, stated that the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to speed up their negotiations and organize another meeting in the coming weeks.

Ned Price said, "The meeting of the ministers in Washington was positive, as they identified differences in many areas, and at the end of the day, they managed to reach an agreement on a joint declaration." He added that although Secretary of State Antony Blinken took part in the discussions at Blair House, the two sides had the opportunity to meet separately during the day and iron out their differences in some cases without the active involvement of the United States. "Our role in this has been to assist. We have provided a venue for the two countries to meet - in this case Blair House, as we did in New York a few weeks ago - in late September. It is not even an agreement that can be forced on either side," the official representative of the State Department added.

He said: "We are trying to create a space and opportunity for the two countries to come together, to reveal their many differences and try to overcome them. But we will not determine what a comprehensive and durable peace between the two countries will look like. We are ready to sign them. We are not presenting a document. We are doing what we can to help with the diplomacy they will need themselves, which is very different from our approach to several problems where we have demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of this model around the world."

But, according to him, the United States should use the means and influence, the good agencies, the knowledge and experience available in this building and throughout this government to help these processes. "We think the meeting with Armenia and Azerbaijan was an opportunity to do that, and we think the results are quite positive," Price added.

Asked whether the Secretary of State hoped the parties would be ready to sign a peace deal by the end of the year, Price said: "We will leave that up to the parties. This is their decision. As you read in their joint statement, the ministers took the opportunity to exchange views on the elements of a possible peace agreement. They recognize that there are several issues to be resolved. They agreed to speed up the negotiations and to hold another meeting in the coming weeks." Price emphasized, "Washington will do everything in its power to make progress as quickly as possible on the path to a comprehensive and lasting peace."

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, on November 7, Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, and Jeyhun Bayramov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, held a meeting in Washington DC, USA, the press offices of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries reported. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken hosted the ministers in the Blair House. The Ministers shared views on the elements of a possible peace treaty. They acknowledged that a range of issues still needs to be addressed. Both sides reiterated the commitments undertaken by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in their meetings on October 6 in Prague and October 31 in Sochi.