 Azerbaijan Armenia to resume talks in Washington soon. Washington is working to schedule the next round of Karabakh talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia soon in a bid to bridge their divides amid increasing border violence, Turin reports. We look forward to hosting another round of talks in Washington soon as the parties continue to pursue a peaceful future in the South Caucasus region. State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told in a press briefing Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jayun Behramov and Ararat Mirzoyan were initially expected to visit Washington for peace talks early last week. However, it got rescheduled last minute. We continue to believe direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace. Patel went on to add, we continue to believe that steps that are going to incite tensions and elevate tensions are certainly unproductive right now, as talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan are proceeding in different venues. And so we'll continue to engage on this and look forward to hosting another round of talks very soon. When asked about Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's latest attempts to downplay Washington's mediating efforts, Patel said in general, the US has been an important partner in the peace process and if Russia thinks that it can play a constructive role in this, certainly they are welcome to but we continue to feel that these talks are progressing, they're proceeding.