Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Expected

Azerbaijan is attempting to make the process of returning Armenian prisoners of war a bargaining chip. This was stated by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a lecture on the topic "Armenia and the Netherlands: Centuries of Friendship - 30 Years of Partnership" at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations in Clingendael, in response to questions from the audience.

The Prime Minister informed that Armenia has adopted a peace agenda and is pursuing border demarcation and delimitation with Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan presented its perspectives on the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, which includes five main points. The discussion revolves around mutual recognition of territorial integrity, border demarcation, delimitation, and the absence of territorial claims from each side. Upon reviewing these proposals, we found that in principle there is nothing unacceptable for us, however, we noted that these points do not address the entire agenda of our relations. We supplemented that agenda to include issues regarding the security, rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.

“On April 6, mediated by Charles Michel, President of the European Council, we discussed this issue with the President of Azerbaijan. I stated that nothing proposed by them is unacceptable to us. If the Azerbaijani side agrees to integrate both visions and commence negotiations on that basis, we are ready for that. However, I must note that recently, statements from Azerbaijan have attempted to create the impression that only Azerbaijan's proposals will be on the table. This at least does not correspond to the agreements we reached in Brussels. I reiterate my position that we are ready for negotiations based on the principles mentioned, although I must emphasize that nothing has changed in the ongoing process that was planned,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

According to him, meetings of representatives from Armenia are scheduled regarding delimitation and demarcation issues, as well as a meeting of the Foreign Ministers.

“We have gone through very harsh trials, but today I can say that I have a deep conviction that we are on the right path,” added Nikol Pashinyan.