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The United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful future in the South Caucasus region, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday, commenting on the ongoing talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington, DC.

“We remain committed to this process and remain committed to promoting a peaceful future in the South Caucasus. We believe that direct dialogue is key to resolving the issues, but I’m just not going to get ahead of the meetings themselves,” he told a press briefing, refusing to provide updates on the meetings.

When asked to reveal the participants of the ministerial meetings, Patel said: “I will let these two countries speak to their own delegations. But we obviously have had a number of officials from the U.S. side deeply engaged on this. Obviously, Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono has been deeply engaged in this not just through these meetings but through his continued engagement in the South Caucuses. You know that Secretary Blinken attended the plenary session yesterday morning and had the opportunity to host these ministers for a dinner Sunday night. And so it’s something that we will continue to be deeply engaged on.”

The spokesman refused to say whether Blinken had plans to hold another meeting with the foreign ministers.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the schedule this week, and we’ll just let these meetings and engagements take part and take them day by day,” he noted.