Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs discuss peace deal at a meeting in Kazakhstan
- 10 May, 10:58
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers met in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Friday to discuss negotiations on the signing of a peace deal between the two neighbours.
Addressing the meeting, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov expressed confidence that he and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan “will work productively in the next two days to find solutions to outstanding issues.”
He reminded the importance of the April 19 agreement on border delimitation that is the first such deal between the two countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The agreement commits Armenia to ceding several key border areas to Azerbaijan. The planned land handover, is portrayed as the start of the Armenian-Azerbaijan border delimitation.
In turn, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reminded that the delimitation process must be based on Almaty declaration of 1991 that commits both countries to recognize each other’s territorial integrity within the Soviet-era borders.
“It is important to note that over the past two years, both the prime minister of Armenia and the president of Azerbaijan have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to the Alma-Ata Declaration in various formats,” Mirzoyan noted. Bayramov and Mirzoyan were joined by their Kazakh counterpart Murat Nurtleu at the opening session of the talks held in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.
It should be noted that the border delimitation has sparked angry protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Armenia.
