The Road is Not Easy: Many Complex and Important Issues to Resolve, Lavrov

The foreign ministers of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan have also addressed the provisions on the unblocking of communications in the three-sided statement of 2020. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while discussing the outcomes of the tripartite negotiations.

“I mean ensuring unhindered movement, unblocking transport and economic communications throughout the region,” he said.

During the meeting, special attention was given to border delimitation issues, which are “closely related to the entire series of issues under discussion, as well as to the prospects of concluding a peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan as soon as possible.”

“We expect that the signing of this agreement will be the peak of a large negotiating process, which will conclude due to the efforts of Armenians and Azerbaijanis initiated during the trilateral meetings with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. The road is not easy. There are many complex and important issues to resolve. Among them, the most sensitive remains the issue of ensuring the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of ensuring Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, as per the declaration signed by the leaders of the former Soviet republics in Alma-Ata in 1991. Its effectiveness has been affirmed today by both the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaderships. Accordingly, work on the peace agreement is underway,” he noted.

According to him, the Armenian side understands the necessity of convincing the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to meet with Azerbaijani representatives as soon as possible “to agree on the rights arising from relevant legislation and international obligations (in this case, Azerbaijan's), including many conventions ensuring the rights of national minorities.”

Lavrov stated that the Azerbaijani side is “prepared to provide the same guarantees to individuals living in its territory on a reciprocal basis, while the Armenians are ready to do the same regarding all conventions applied to citizens residing in the Republic of Armenia.”

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that today's discussions would help inject a positive momentum into the negotiation process in this and other areas: “The nearest outcome at this stage is the achievement of agreement in the trilateral working group led by the three deputy prime ministers, who are engaged in coordinating specific issues concerning the unblocking of transport communications in the region. In this context, prospects will also open for the implementation of promising projects in the transport sector, which already have not only a regional but also a broader nature.”