Azernews.Az

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 tweeted.

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.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz