Mr. Minister,

Dear friend, dear Xavier,

I am glad to host you and your delegation in the Republic of Armenia, in Yerevan.

I want to mention that the contact between the honourable Minister and me is regular and frequent, and we often have the opportunity to talk about bilateral relations, Armenia-EU relations, and our regional issues. However, I am especially happy to welcome the Minister and his delegation on the occasion of his participation in the "Yerevan Dialogue" forum. I am sure, dear Minister, your contribution to the exchange of views will be precious, and we value it. Of course, traditionally, your visit is also an excellent opportunity to talk about other issues: our bilateral relations, Armenia-EU relations.

Dear attendees,

I would like to point out a few things.

First, in February, if you remember, I visited Luxembourg, and there we opened the diplomatic office of Armenia. This is also a very tangible and concrete proof of our attitude towards Luxembourg. Regarding relations with Luxembourg, we have already formed very good foundations for sectoral cooperation: economy, education, all other areas, which at the moment, of course, we have to admit, are a little behind the level of our political dialogue, but the foundations, as I said, are quite good.

It should be noted that, of course, our cooperation is not limited to the bilateral agenda. We have quite tangible cooperation with positive results and a constant positive attitude on various international platforms, where we often support each other's initiatives and candidacies. During our meeting, we also stressed the importance of our cooperation on multilateral platforms.

Of course, Armenia-EU relations are an important part of our agenda, and today, in fact, we have officially started the Armenia-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue. We have had a positive message from the European Union on this until now, the EU assistance decision under the European Peace Facility, and the European Union monitoring mission at our border. And we have to state once again that since its deployment, this instrument, this mission, has been quite effective in monitoring the situation and also, in fact, in providing certain stability. These are some of the tools we have with the European Union today. We are now working together to form a new partnership agenda, in fact, we are in the finalization stage of this agenda, we are working in this direction. And I want to express my gratitude in your presence to Minister Bettel for having the clear, unequivocal support of Luxembourg throughout this period.

Of course, dear colleagues, today we also discussed the issues of our region. I informed the Minister that Armenia sent the 10th edition of the draft peace treaty to Azerbaijan. And it is also no secret that this edition largely includes the fully agreed text. These are the fully agreed articles, or agreed parts of several articles, and in fact, we are waiting for Azerbaijan's response. We believe that there is a real opportunity to sign the peace treaty in a short period of time and open a page and age of lasting stability and peace in the South Caucasus.

Of course, I won't go into detail about the topic of unblocking the infrastructure. Our approach is well-known. We are ready to start the process of unblocking the infrastructure a day earlier, a minute earlier, within the framework of the principles presented in the "Crossroads of Peace" concept known to all of us.

We will continue our dialogue tomorrow within the framework of the "Yerevan Dialogue" forum, where I have the honor of exchanging views with the Minister within the framework of the same panel discussion.

Thank you once again for the visit, for our friendship.

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Question (Radio liberty): I am addressing my question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan. Do Armenia and Azerbaijan still have differences over the peace treaty? Could you please clarify whether mentioning the Alma-Ata declaration in the draft peace treaty is among those disagreements? And in the Regulation of the Commissions on delimitation, when it is mentioned about the possibility of establishing principles other than Alma-Ata, what principle is it about, Mr. Mirzoyan? Does Azerbaijan put forward another principle? And a technical question. In the last press conference, the Prime Minister mentioned two numbers: 16+3 and 17. How many articles are there in the peace treaty? Thank you.

Answer (Ararat Mirzoyan): Thank you for the question. Regarding the agreed text of the peace treaty, as I said, the text that we proposed, i. e. our last edition of the text, is a fully agreed text. There are articles that were previously agreed upon in their entirety, there are parts of other articles that were also agreed upon. In fact, technically the entire text is agreed. This was our proposal։ to sign what has been agreed so far. Therefore, we no longer have a disagreement over the text, but the Azerbaijani side is trying to include other preconditions and issues in the negotiation process. Our approach is the following: we can sign the already agreed text as soon as possible. Of course, it will not be possible to settle all issues with one text and one treaty, and the rest will be left for further negotiations in case both sides are interested.

Regarding the document that was signed between the Commissions on delimitation, I am afraid there was a little confusion in your words. It is stated that the basis of delimitation is the Alma-Ata Declaration, and if a different principle is enshrined in the agreement on establishment of relations, we will change it accordingly. No other principle is discussed. I want to say, and I said a moment ago, that what you asked regarding the agreement, can be found in the agreed part of the text. I don't want to go ahead and reveal other details, although it's not a big secret, but I also do not want to violate the etiquette of negotiations. Here, we have no secrets from our society and no unpleasant surprises. But another principle that would change what has already been agreed is not being discussed at the moment. Regarding the articles, the Prime Minister probably considered the preamble separately, technically, we now have sixteen articles, thirteen of which are fully agreed, and the other three are partially agreed.

Question (Sputnik Armenia): Mr. Mirzoyan, my question is addressed to you. Now, the possible transfer of control to private companies regarding the future Nakhijevan-Syunik-Azerbaijan connection is being actively discussed. I want to understand how it will be conducted, who proposed that idea, Armenia or Azerbaijan, what is Azerbaijan's position, and if possible, would you elaborate in what format it could happen?

Answer (Ararat Mirzoyan): Thank you for the question. I don't stop being surprised how the reality is being changed from article to article, from opinion to opinion, one word is changing, then another word is added, and another one, and already something that does not really exist is presented as a reality by some “independent” experts or by any politicians or political analysts. Anything that implies the creation of a “corridor” and handing over control over it to any other party is not discussed, and we've stated that the presence of third powers and control by those powers is excluded for Armenia. It's unacceptable for us, nothing has changed in our position. It is about something else. In fact, to make people feel even more secure, we can bring in, and this is just one of the options that our side is considering. We can engage in both countries, for example, a licensed private security company that can escort the cargo and the passengers on or in the trains. This is what it's all about. The presence along the possibly unblocked infrastructure, in this case along the railway, neither a public party nor a private presence was ever acceptable to us. Thank you.