Azerbaijan, Armenia end talks in Kazakhstan with pledge to continue discussing controversial issues

Foreign ministers also held trilateral, and separate meetings with Kazakh counterpart Murat Nurtleu

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Baku and Yerevan have agreed to continue negotiations on controversial bilateral issues, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on Saturday after a meeting in Kazakhstan.

The ministry said in a statement that during two-day negotiations in the Kazakh capital Almaty, the two sides welcomed the progress on the border delimitation and addressed provisions of a future peace treaty.

"On May 10-11, 2024, negotiations were held in the Kazakh city of Almaty between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan.

"The ministers welcomed the progress in the delimitation of borders and the agreements reached in this regard. The ministers and their delegations continued to discuss the provisions of the draft bilateral Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The parties agreed to continue negotiations on the remaining open issues on which there are still differences," it said.

The ministry added that apart from normalization talks, Bayramov and Mirzoyan also held a trilateral meeting, and separate meetings with their Kazakh counterpart Murat Nurtleu.

"Minister Jeyhun Bayramov thanked the Kazakh side for holding talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia," the ministry said.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and the demarcation of their border.

Last September, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh following an "anti-terrorist operation" after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.

Kaynak:

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