December 8, 2021 - 14:30 AMT
Armenia: Unblocking of communications not related to border delimitation

The possible unblocking of communications in the South Caucasus region is not related to the delimitation and demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said in an interview with TASS on Tuesday, December 7.

"We follow the Sochi statement of the leaders of the three countries, according to which we have agreed to take steps to increase the level of stability and security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and to move the process towards the creation of a bilateral commission on the delimitation and the subsequent demarcation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with advisory assistance from the Russian Federation. However, this issue is in no way interconnected with the possible opening of transport communications in the region," Grigoryan said.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia also added that within the trilateral working group of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on unblocking transport communications, an expert subgroup has been created, which is engaged in working on issues of ensuring transportation in the event of opening the borders.

Grigoryan's also weighed in on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's latest remarks, in which he demanded that Armenia name the dates for the opening of what he called the "Zangezur Corridor", threatening with "problems" otherwise.

"The latest statement of official Baku was unexpected for us. It was assumed that in the coming days we will continue the work [of the working group]. I hope that the situation will return to a constructive track, and we will continue to work within the fundamental principles that have already been agreed upon," he said.

The last meeting of the trilateral working group of the vice-premiers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation was held on December 1 in Moscow.