Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described the mutual recognition of territorial integrity between Armenia and Azerbaijan to be an important step in terms of establishing stability and peace in the region and finalizing the text of the peace treaty between the two countries.
The Armenian Prime Minister made the comment at the Cabinet sitting g on May 18, speaking about his meeting with the Azerbaijani President on May 14 in Brussels under the mediation of the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
“Basically we made another step on May 14. And as it was mentioned in the statement by the President of the European Council after the May 14 meeting, we noted that Azerbaijan recognizes Armenia’s 29,800 square kilometers territorial integrity and Armenia recognizes Azerbaijan’s 86,600 square kilometers territorial integrity. I must note that I find this to be an important step for establishing stability and peace in the region, and also in terms of finalizing the text of the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan and border delimitation. But, of course, the next step must be identifying and agreeing upon specific grounds with legal force and significance for delimitation”, Pashinyan said.
The Armenian Prime Minister highlighted the fact that President of the European Council Charles Michel noted in his statement the importance of Baku-Stepanakert dialogue around the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, in cooperation with the international community. Pashinyan said that this is a process, which is significant for real and comprehensive normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and establishment of lasting peace in the region.
“Therefore it will greatly speed up the signing of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A certain positive understanding has been developed in Brussels also in terms of restoring the Armenia-Azerbaijan railway, but given the previous experience, I will refrain from specifying in this regard. I stress this again, Armenia is ready to reopen the connections envisaged under the 9 November 2020 statement clause 9 and the January 11 trilateral statement as soon as possible based on the principles of sovereignty, jurisdiction, reciprocity and equality of the parties”, Pashinyan said.
