Nikol Pashinyan on proposals submitted to Baku to de-escalate  situation on border

ArmInfo.The proposals submitted to Baku relate to improving the level of border security. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this on January 24 during an  online press conference, answering questions from the media and  public organizations.

On January 14, at a press conference following the results of the  activities of Russian diplomacy in 2021, Russian Foreign Minister  Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would convey to Azerbaijan Armenia's  proposals regarding a commission on the delimitation of the border  between the two countries with its subsequent demarcation. "Just  yesterday, I talked with an Armenian colleague who had new proposals,  we are passing them on to Baku. We will look at how to make it (the  commission) work as soon as possible," he said. On January 19, during  a government hour in parliament, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat  Mirzoyan stated that Yerevan had prepared proposals aimed at  de-escalating the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and  transmitted them both to Russia and through Moscow to Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan recalled that according to the tripartite statement adopted  in Sochi, there was an agreement that the parties would take steps to  increase the level of security stability on the Armenian-Azerbaijani  border and work towards the establishment of a Delimitation and  Demarcation Commission. The proposals submitted to Azerbaijan do not  concern the delimitation and demarcation process itself, but the  increase in the level of security and stability on the border. "In  particular, we are talking about the equal withdrawal of troops,  which I spoke about in May 2021," he said, adding that without  stability at the border, it is impossible to implement the process of  delimitation and demarcation.

According to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Baku, in  fact, responded to this package, stating that demarcation and  delimitation should be carried out without preconditions. "To which  the Armenian Foreign Ministry replied that there were no  preconditions from the Armenian side and it was not about  preconditions, but about mechanisms for implementing the agreements.  These proposals did not fall from the sky, as a result of various  discussions there were different proposals," he explained.  According  to the prime minister, Armenia did not try to formulate a document  expressing the point of view of the Armenian side - an attempt was  made to withdraw rational proposals from the discussions and  formulate mutually acceptable proposals, and, as Pashinyan believes,  this was successful. "Discussions are ongoing, we do not want to  disrupt the working discussion by revealing many details. We believe  that the commission on demarcation and delimitation should be formed  as soon as possible, the sooner the better.  Those agreements that we  have reached, the sooner they are implemented, the better, now we are  working to make it happen," the prime minister said.  Referring to  the statement of  EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus  and the crisis in Georgia, Toivo Klaar, that the European Union  offered the parties several options for defusing the situation,  Pashinyan noted: "We met in Sochi, then in Brussels, and as a result  of this, we tried to derive those possible common approaches that  were fixed, and the proposals that we made, in which some nuances  changed along the way, include discussions in Sochi and Brussels. We  formulated the proposal, but the copyright on them does not belong to  us, because this is the result of discussions, certain comments were  made by Russia, moreover, they also reflect certain observations of  Azerbaijan, Armenia, the EU. What we said and saw at the table, that  there may be some options, we formalized them and put them on the  table."