Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Antalya, Turkey, that the two major powers had a common position.

In May alone the economy expanded by a record 25.8 percent, compared with a 13.5 percent contraction a year ago. Growth was recorded in all sectors of the economy.

The EBRD predicted that growth in the South Caucasus and Central Asia in 2021 would be stronger than it initially expected, though it warned a slow pace of vaccinations left the recovery vulnerable to an autumn COVID-19 wave.

Both leaders welcomed heightened ties with the EU. Baku said it invited the bloc to help with the post-war reconstruction of Azerbaijani lands looted and systematically destroyed during the Armenian occupation.