We believe that peace is first of all the possibility and presence of economic, cultural, political connections between peoples, and these connections obviously cannot happen without transport communications, and this is the reason why we have completed our approaches on the very important topic of opening regional communications. In the "Crossroads of Peace" project, which is essentially about opening up regional communications, and which, in fact, is also directly related to greater access to land, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the ministerial meeting of landlocked developing countries, referring to the "Crossroads of Peace" project.
The Prime Minister of Armenia first reminded that Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan have been closed for more than 30 years.
"And today we, the international community and regional countries are talking a lot, discussing the possibilities of opening regional communications. I consider it very important to record in this prestigious audience Armenia's readiness to take very active and concrete steps regarding the opening of communications in our region," said Pashinyan, detailing what readiness he was talking about.
"The Republic of Armenia expresses its willingness to create and restore railway communication between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including through two existing railways.
The first is the northern route, which connects the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan with the Tavush region of Armenia, and the second is the southern route, which, among others, also connects the western regions of Azerbaijan with the Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan. In addition, we believe that the western regions of Azerbaijan can be connected with the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan and the outside world in general through the northern route, and we have expressed this willingness officially and we are expressing it today as well.
The next one concerns the highways, which, by the way, can have a northern route, so to speak, a middle route and a southern route, which, as you can see, will open new opportunities for our region, and, in fact, Armenia through the "Crossroads of Peace" can connect and link other countries along the north-south axis and the east-west axis.
In addition, we show the same readiness in terms of opening the Armenia-Turkey railway and in terms of reconstructing and reopening the two Armenia-Turkey highways that previously existed, which, we believe, will have a significant impact not only on our region, but also on the international economy in general, on relations and cultural ties, political ties and global security issues in general," Pashinyan said.
