12:58,

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. The conversation in the May 14 trilateral Pashinyan-Aliyev-Michel talks in Brussels was more substantive, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said at a press conference.

President of the European Council Charles Michel said after the talks that there has been an understanding that further detainees would be released in the coming weeks.

Asked whether or not this means that the jailed Azeri soldiers who had trespassed into Armenia would get swapped with the Armenian captives held illegally in Azerbaijan, the Deputy FM said: “It was said very clearly, that there are many agreements on Armenian captives, and these agreements must be implemented. This was a direct message, and I don’t recall any mention of a swap. The call was simply about the previously reached agreements.”

Speaking about Michel’s mention of recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, the Armenian Deputy FM said that it refers to the borders that existed at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse. “This is what it was about, and it is in line with the Almaty Declaration, he was simply reiterating that principle,” Hovhannisyan said at the press conference on Europe Day and the Armenia-EU relations. 

The meeting was mostly aimed at achieving progress with concrete steps, Hovhannisyan added. “And the issues announced by the President of the European Council shows that the conversation was more substantive.”