Washington Declaration Will Have a Positive Impact on Armenia-Turkey Relations: Vahan Kostanyan

Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan believes that a significant development has occurred in the South Caucasus towards establishing peace as a result of the tripartite meeting in Washington involving Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.

“It can be noted that in terms of further foreign policy directions, Armenia is transitioning from a phase of conflict management to a phase of institutionalization of peace, which will naturally require considerable efforts from our foreign policy department, as well as from our other partners. The work in this direction must continue. Among the priorities is also the process of unblocking regional communications, within which four crucial principles were recorded that are red lines for Armenia: that is, based on the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, legality, and reciprocity, the unblocking of transport infrastructures between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Kostanyan stated, as reported by Armenpress.

According to him, this was a very important milestone on the path of the Republic of Armenia's foreign policy and peace agenda in recent years, and more needs to be done in this direction.

Referring to the potential impact of the Armenia-U.S.-Azerbaijan tripartite declaration on the Armenia-Turkey normalization process, Kostanyan recalled that dialogue between Armenia and Turkey is ongoing without intermediaries, but he expressed hope that the Washington declaration will also positively influence Armenia-Turkey relations, as the signed declaration has opened new economic opportunities for all countries in the region, including Turkey.

“We hope that our Turkish partners will increase their efforts in this direction, which will also allow for the recording of positive progress in Armenia-Turkey relations,” Kostanyan concluded.