The countries of the South Caucasus and their neighbors discuss the situation in the region in Iran

In the capital of Iran, Tehran, on October 23, the second meeting of the 3 + 3 format (Russia, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) was held at the level of foreign ministers, but in fact it was held in the 3 + 2 format – the Georgian authorities refused to participate. In the Iranian capital, the heads of foreign affairs departments discussed issues of regional security in the South Caucasus, the resumption of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace negotiations, as well as the need to expand regional cooperation in the political and economic fields, security, transit and energy, Iranian Mehr agency reports. Opening the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that it could lay the foundation for establishing peace and eliminating problems in the South Caucasus with the participation of regional players and neighbors. “The war in the Caucasus is over and the time has come for peace, cooperation and progress in the region,” he added.

Shortly before the start of the meeting of the foreign ministers in Tehran, the Iranian delegation led by the Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash held negotiations with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, during which they discussed the development of transport infrastructure. As a result of the dialogue, the parties entered into an agreement on the construction by Iranian contractors of a highway from the Iranian border town of Agarak to the city of Qajaran in the Syunik region of Armenia (32 km) as part of the development of the Armenian section of the international North-South transport corridor, which provides for Iranians to have access to the Black Sea through the territory of Armenia and Georgia.

In addition, representatives of the two countries signed a document on the overhaul of the Agarak-Vardanidzor road (21 km), the construction of a road from Vardanidzor to the exit from the Kajaran tunnel (about 11 km) and a border bridge across the Araks River, News.am reports with reference to the press service Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia. The project is financed through a loan from the Eurasian Development Bank and funds from the Armenian state budget.

Following the negotiations in Yerevan, Iranian Minister Bazrpash opposed the opening of the so-called Zangezur corridor, which would connect the western regions of Azerbaijan with its exclave in Nakhichevan and further with Turkey through Armenian territory. He recalled that Tehran has repeatedly advocated the inadmissibility of the creation of this corridor if it leads to the closure of the Iranian-Armenian border. “We are against this. Our policy is based on peace in the Caucasus, we condemn any external interference and believe that the countries of the region will be able to make the best decisions themselves,” the minister told reporters.

The 3+3 format was created a year after the end of the second Karabakh war in November 2020 as a negotiating platform for regional states to solve security problems and expand trade and economic interaction between the countries of the South Caucasus and neighboring states. For the first time, Recep Erdogan took the initiative to form this platform in 2008, who at that time held the post of Prime Minister of Turkey. But then its implementation did not receive support from the authorities of the three South Caucasian republics, recalled Stanislav Pritchin, an expert at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the IMEMO RAS. “At that time, all regional states still had unresolved contradictions in their relations with each other, both in the Baku-Ankara-Yerevan connection, and Moscow-Tbilisi after the August war in 2008,” the expert added.

In December 2020, Erdogan again proposed to neighboring states to hold negotiations in the 3 + 3 format, which was subsequently supported by all countries in the region, with the exception of Georgia. The Georgian authorities explained their position by saying that they will not participate in any platforms where Russia is present until it withdraws its troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But at the same time, Tbilisi proposed an alternative option, which involved the participation of only three South Caucasian countries. The first meeting of the 3 + 3 format was held on December 10, 2021 in Moscow at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

After Baku’s “anti-terrorist operation” in Karabakh on September 19–20, one of the elements that hindered the intensification of dialogue between the states of the region fell away, Pritchin continues. Although without Georgia’s participation the 3 + 3 platform looks incomplete and interferes with the implementation of joint projects in the field of development of transport infrastructure and solving regional security issues, this format, the expert believes, can be economically beneficial for all its participants. “On the one hand, regionalization of policy is not a priority for Tbilisi in terms of long-term strategy, given its plans to integrate the country into the European Union and NATO. On the other hand, Georgia is developing economic cooperation with Russia, but in a political sense, the Georgian authorities are not going to change their course,” Pritchin explained.

Iran’s interest in the 3 + 3 format is due to the fact that Tehran is trying to find its place and take part in solving regional problems against the backdrop of changes taking place in the region after Azerbaijan’s victory in the war, Iranian expert Nikita Smagin believes. According to him, Tehran has come to terms with the change in the status quo and is making it clear that it is ready to participate in the formation of a new regional order. “Therefore, the Iranian authorities initiated a meeting of the five regional countries in Tehran. In addition, it is important for them that Turkey and Azerbaijan do not infringe on their economic interests in the region, in particular in infrastructure projects,” the expert added.

In addition, Smagin continues, Tehran is interested in developing a North-South transit transport corridor that would connect Iran with Russia by road and rail through the territory of Azerbaijan. In May, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev and his Iranian counterpart Bazrpash signed an agreement to build a 162-kilometer Rasht-Astara railway section along the Caspian Sea coast with financial participation from Russia. In July 2022, Vedomosti, citing sources in the Ministry of Transport, wrote that Moscow is ready to allocate $1.5 billion for the development of the North-South corridor.