Putin, Aliyev, Pezeshkian meet following Caspian summit - Peskov
MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a trilateral meeting in Turkmenistan on Friday, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.
"Indeed, such a meeting did take place following the Caspian summit," Peskov said.
While in Turkmenistan, Putin has taken part in a CIS summit and a Caspian environmental summit.
Nine years have passed since the last trilateral summit between the leaders of Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan.
The first meeting between the three leaders took place in Baku in the fall of 2016, when Hassan Rouhani was the Iranian president, and the second was held in Tehran on November 1, 2017. There have been no summits in this format since then.
A new meeting between the leaders of Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan was initially planned in Moscow in 2018, then it was rescheduled for 2019, and was later postponed again due to organizational reasons.
At the Tehran summit in 2017, the presidents signed a joint statement, in which Azerbaijan and Iran declared their intention to deepen interaction on international energy forums and cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
The presidents also reiterated the importance of cooperation in the road, rail, and air transport sector to develop the North-South International Transport Corridor. In this context, they called for implementing the Rasht-Astara railway line project as soon as possible.
Speaking at the summit in Tehran, Putin proposed building an energy bridge among the three countries, which would imply integration of their energy systems. "The implementation of this initiative would enhance energy security and ensure a sustainable electricity supply for the entire region," he said.
Asked by journalists later in the day what necessitated a separate meeting between the three presidents, Peskov replied, "There are matters related, so to speak, to formats of interaction in very different areas, which were discussed."
In particular, the leaders addressed formats of interaction in the energy sector, he said.
