Yerevan hands over new peace treaty proposals to Baku

Armenia submitted new proposals to Azerbaijan on a draft peace treaty between the two countries, informed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at a government meeting.

“I want to emphasize the commitment of the Republic of Armenia to the peace agenda. I must inform you that we have submitted to the Azerbaijani side our new proposals for a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the press service of the Cabinet quotes him as saying.

The situation in the blocked Nagorno-Karabakh remains, he said, tense, but with the assistance of the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers, a “certain movement” has begun through the Lachin corridor of people who need medical help. Pashinyan also spoke about the received “reliable information” regarding the development of plans to open the corridor for exit. At the same time, thousands of residents of Karabakh remain in Armenia, who cannot return home, the prime minister added.

On May 25, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, through the mediation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussed relations between the two countries in the Kremlin, but did not adopt a joint statement at the end of the day. At the same time, as Aliyev noted, after Armenia’s statements on the recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the issue of agreeing on the points of the peace treaty will go “much easier.”

In late July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke of plans to hold a summit of the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan this year. Earlier in the month, the Foreign Ministry announced that Russia was ready to organize such a meeting in Moscow. They also noted that after the summit in Moscow, it is possible to organize a Russian-Azerbaijani-Armenian summit, at which the parties would sign a peace treaty.

The aggravation of the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh has been dragging on since September 2020, when hostilities began in the region between the military of Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a result, a tripartite statement was signed by Putin, Pashinyan and Aliyev. The situation around the region worsened again in 2022, when the State Border Guard Service of Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, on the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.