U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a September 16 telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, reaffirmed the importance of a durable and dignified peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Blinken, according to his office, welcomed recent progress between the parties, including agreement on a border delimitation regulation.

Aliyev, according to the Azerbaijani press, said that peace had already been restored in the region due to Baku’s efforts and told Blinken that Yerevan must “abandon its territorial claims against Azerbaijan enshrined in its Constitution and other legislative acts, as well as terminate the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group and related institutions as remnants of the past.”

Baku has long claimed that a preamble to Armenia’s Constitution indirectly refers to a 1989 declaration on Artsakh’s reunification with the Republic of Armenia and calls for the international recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.