BAKU, February 28. /TASS/. The Lachin corridor should operate in conformity with the trilateral statement of the Russian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani leaders dated November 9, 2020, which has no provisions on any checkpoints, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday after talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov.
"The regime of its (the Lachin corridor – TASS) operation should be fully in in line with the first trilateral statement dated November 9-10, 2020, which means that free movement for solely civilians and humanitarian cargoes and civilians must be ensures. This is what we want to achieve, first of all with the help of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. It doesn’t envisage the establishment of any checkpoints," he said.
According to the Russian top diplomat, it is possible to "remove suspicions" about the use of the corridor "by technical means." "We touched that upon today. Technical details are of secondary importance," he added.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on February 18 that at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich, the Azerbaijani side suggested checkpoints be set up on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, including at the both ends of the Zangezur corridor and on the border between the Lachin corridor and Armenia. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on February 22 that Yerevan objects against establishing Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor.