Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on mutual recognition of territorial integrity, noting that the countries are “making good progress” towards settling relations.

In turn, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Baku does not have any territorial claims against Armenia, and indicated that the opportunity is currently possible for the two countries to reach a peace agreement, “considering that Armenia recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.”

The President of the Republic added that there are serious requirements for normalizing relations on the basis of recognizing the territorial integrity of the other party.

Last year, Yerevan and Baku, mediated by Russia, the United States and the European Union, began discussing a future peace treaty. The two countries periodically exchange proposals on the text of the peace treaty.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which includes the Karabakh region, but on the condition that the security of the Armenian population there is guaranteed.

“Armenia recognizes 86.6 thousand square kilometers of Azerbaijan, based on the fact that Azerbaijan is ready to recognize 29.8 thousand square kilometers of territorial integrity of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

He continued, “86.6 thousand square kilometers of Azerbaijan include the Karabakh region, but it should also be noted that we are talking about the need to discuss the issue of the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians in the Baku-Stepanakert (negotiations) format.”

The Prime Minister noted that Armenia reaffirms Russia’s position that the border demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be carried out on the basis of the 1975 maps of the General Staff of the Soviet Union and the mutual withdrawal of forces from the border line recorded by those maps.