(MENAFN) On Saturday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that his country had offered Armenia the opportunity to open checkpoints on the border between the two nations. Aliyev made the statement while speaking to journalists at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, following a trilateral meeting with the US, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. He added that Yerevan had not yet responded to the offer.
Aliyev stated that if communications were to be opened between the two countries, checkpoints should be established at both ends of the Zangezur corridor and at the border between the Lachin district and Armenia. The move could potentially provide a means of increasing economic and cultural ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have had a history of strained relations.
The Azerbaijani President also noted that there had been "some progress" made in peace talks between the two nations. However, he emphasized that any mention of Karabakh in a peace treaty between the two countries would be "unacceptable." The Nagorno-Karabakh region has been a long-standing point of contention between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Aliyev also called on Armenia to cease its illegal mining of Azerbaijan's resources. Earlier in the day, he had met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The meetings mark a potential turning point in relations between the two nations, which have been fraught with conflict and tensions for many years.
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