“We have good relations with Georgia, including from an integration standpoint. I had the opportunity to speak about this when we were discussing Armenia’s participation in the One Belt, One Road initiative. I think that it will be possible to come up with an initiative that will attempt to connect the countries all the way from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf. We are also building the North-South road in order to build that connection. This road will connect Armenia’s southern border to the Armenian-Georgian border in the north. I hope that this initiative will be interesting for Iran, Georgia, Russia, and China. We also spoke to Bulgaria. They are also interested. I hope that this will be a very important initiative, especially for our regional stability and security,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a press conference in St. Petersburg.
Regarding Azerbaijan, Pashinyan noted, “Unfortunately, we do not have such constructive ties with Azerbaijan, and we are working towards the resolution of the Artsakh conflict. Armenia’s decision on this remains in the constructive phase. I believe that this conflict needs to be resolved in a peaceful way through negotiations. Negotiations are being moderated by the OSCE Minsk Group. It is important to emphasize that representatives from Artsakh were present from the very beginning. They were involved in the negotiations process. Our position is that, if we truly want this conflict to be resolved, then it is simply impossible if Artsakh remains outside of the negotiations process. It is important to rebuild the process entirely that is moderated by the OSCE Minsk Group with internationally accepted documents, where the three sides of the conflict are present: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Artsakh. We are working in that direction now so that Artsakh can finally return to the negotiations table and be completely involved in the process.”
Gohar Hakobyan
