Putin to hold talks with Azerbaijan's Aliyev as Russian troops quit Karabakh

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attend a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 16, 2022. Sputnik/Alexander Demyanchuk//File Photo

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on April 22, the Kremlin said on Friday.

The meeting comes after the Kremlin confirmed that Russian peacekeepers have begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan's Karabakh and other regions, ending a multi-year deployment which gave Moscow a military foothold in the strategic South Caucasus region.

According to the Kremlin's statement on Friday, Putin and Aliyev plan to discuss the Russian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership and regional issues.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)