Both the U.S. secretary of state and the assistant secretary of state continue to focus on the release of political prisoners kept in Azerbaijan, Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Vedant Patel said at a press briefing in response to the question as to whether the high-level meetings between Baku and Washington—the recent visit of James O’Brien and the telephone conversation of Blinken—are taking place without securing the release of POWs.
Patel noted that it is a long process and “it requires us to have continued engagement.”
