(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan met in Astana to negotiate a draft
peace treaty under the aegis of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov, Azernews reports, citing the Foreign Ministry.
“The meeting between Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun
Bayramov, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov,
and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan has started in
Astana,” the ministry .
During the trilateral meeting on October 14, Bayramov
highlighted that the previous meeting in a similar format was
conducted in May in Dushanbe, emphasizing that the present meeting
is an excellent chance to examine progress since then.
He underlined that a bilateral meeting on the peace accord was
held on October 2 in Geneva, during which Azerbaijan provided
Armenia with the major elements of the prospective peace deal and
is awaiting Armenia's reply in this regard.
The minister added that Azerbaijan submitted the basic
principles of the peace treaty in February, and at the end of the
quadrilateral conference in Prague (October 6), both Azerbaijan and
Armenia agreed to mutually recognize and respect each other's
territorial integrity and sovereignty, which should be regarded as
progress toward signing the accord.
The sides also exchanged views on potential directions of the
normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Bayramov highlighted the importance of starting practical
actions based on the progress achieved during the negotiations of
the trilateral working group on the opening of communications.
It was reported that the border delimitation commissions had
already been established, with two meetings already held, and a
third meeting scheduled for the near future. Bayramov emphasized
that Azerbaijan is in favor of taking concrete steps in certain
directions in this process.
The minister emphasized the importance of full implementation of
the trilateral declarations by Armenia. He added that Armenia
continues to plant mines in Azerbaijani territory and refuses to
give mine maps, torpedoing the normalization of relations.
During the discussion, perspectives on other humanitarian
concerns conducive to the normalization process were also
sounded.
Earlier, Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan
met to negotiate a draft peace treaty in Geneva on October 2.
The bilateral meeting was organized in accordance with the task
assigned to foreign ministers to develop the text of the peace
treaty as agreed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on August 31 in Brussels under the
auspices of European Union Council President Charles Michel.
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