RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in response to Radar Armenia’s question, referred to the topic of unblocking highways.
Radar Armenia inquired: “Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Overchuk stated in October that it depends on Armenia’s desire whether it will be a part of the regional communications scheme or not, considering the issue of connecting the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.” Can you present how Russia and Western partners envision the legal status and actual control of that road? Is there an overlap of Armenia’s interests with them in this regard?”
In response, Nikol Pashinyan elaborated, “Azerbaijan’s position is that citizens of Azerbaijan should pass through the territory of the Republic of Armenia in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia. Customs and passport control should not be carried out according to the procedures established by RA legislation, and Armenian border guards and customs services should not have anything to do with them. We say that this logic is not very understandable, because if we go for the agenda of peace, it is a further continuation of the agenda of enmity. We are ready: come, pass, we will also pass through your territory, and the citizens of Armenia and Azerbaijan will have the opportunity to use those roads. We are ready to go that way. Here is the problem. I reiterate: we are ready. We are not ready for such regulations that will undermine the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia, even in a separate area. Today, the whole world is moving towards the simplification of logistics chains, so that the goods can be transported quickly and without additional hassles, because especially in the 21st century, logistics is of great importance. We are ready to go to those arrangements, but we are not prepared to belittle the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia.”
In response to the question, what is the opinion of the Russian and Western partners, the Prime Minister said, “We have presented our positions to the Russian Federation, and during the last visit, it seemed to us that we reached an agreement; our positions and the Russian Federation coincide, and based on these positions, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation prepared a text of a tripartite statement, a draft, which I said I was ready to sign. And Azerbaijan did not want to sign.”
According to Pashinyan, he proposed to sign that text on December 28, 2022, in Saint Petersburg, “I am ready to sign that text even today, without the intervention of Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan removed a very important paragraph. We have proposed another option: let’s bilaterally outsource the border services, even if for some time, invite an international operator to carry out the border control. It is common all over the world, be it an international organization or a private company. We agree with that version, Azerbaijan does not agree. All our offers remain valid.”
