YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The situation around the world and in the region is tense and Armenia considers itself responsible to de-escalate this tension and find fundamental solutions, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
“In this regard, indeed, we think that the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be launched as soon as possible. Moreover, the border demarcation and delimitation works must be accelerated parallel to the measures for increasing the level of security and stability at the border. You know certainly that we have made the proposal of reciprocal withdrawal of troops on the border, considering the de jure borderline confirmed between Armenia and Azerbaijan during Soviet times as an indicative for pulling back,” the PM said.
Pashinyan added that in addition to the proposal of the general withdrawal, Armenia also proposed local withdrawals, and is still awaiting a response from Azerbaijan.
“Particularly, in the Yeraskh section we proposed them to pull back several positions from our territory, and in turn we will pull back several positions from their territory, and thus we will solve the issue of one of the most fierce locations of the past one and a half year. We are waiting for a response from Azerbaijan,” the PM said.
However, PM Pashinyan said that after the latest developments it is unclear whether or not Azerbaijan truly wants the opening of regional connections.
“It’s not very clear for us whether Azerbaijan wants the opening of regional connections or not. If it does, our proposals are still in force and we are ready to start implementing them at any moment, literally at any moment,” Pashinyan said, reminding that he has numerously talked about the Armenian Crossroad project.