By Busra Nur Cakmak
ANKARA (AA) – EU Council President Charles Michel, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a trilateral meeting on Saturday in Brussels.
“We are going through one of the most comprehensive and vigorous stages of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said Michel in remarks after meeting with the southern Caucasus countries.
Michel said the meeting was the latest in a series of high-level meetings held in Brussels, Chisinau (Moldova), Washington, Moscow, and on the two countries’ shared border since early May.
“I commended the leaders for their strong commitment to the peace process and encouraged them to take further courageous steps to ensure decisive and irreversible progress on the normalization track,” he added.
Michel said both countries reiterated their respect for the other country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, adding that they reconfirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration
This is “based on the understanding that Armenia’s territory covers 29,800 square kilometers (11,506 square miles) and Azerbaijan’s 86,600 km2 (33, 436 square mi),” he said.
“I welcomed the 12 July meeting of the two border commissions. Work has advanced on the statutes of these commissions and on discussions regarding the basis for delimitation. And – this is very important – the leaders agreed to intensify and accelerate the work of the commissions,” he added.
- Lachin corridor
Michel said that the two sides have made progress in their discussions aimed at unblocking transport and economic links in the region in the past two months.
“We discussed modalities of future transport arrangements which will respect the principles of sovereignty, jurisdiction, and reciprocity,” he added.
In this context, underlining that construction of a railway connection should be started as soon as possible, Michel said the EU would also be ready to contribute financially.
Michel said that they discussed the Armenian population in Karabakh in the wake of the fall 2020 conflict between the two countries and the situation around the Lachin corridor, which could connect Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan.
“The current state of affairs is clearly not sustainable and is in no one’s interest,” he said, adding: “I emphasized the need to open the Lachin road.”
Michel said that the teams will be in contact and added: “Real progress depends on the next steps that will need to be taken in the near future. As a matter of priority, violence and harsh rhetoric should stop in order to provide the proper environment for peace and normalization talks.”