At the start of the negotiations between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Almaty, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan made opening remarks where he said, “It is very symbolic that we meet today in this beautiful city of Almaty, and even more, in the same “House of Friendship” building where the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration was signed.

I would like to remind you that this is the document which was signed by the then-former USSR republics, among others recognizing the former administrative borders as interstate borders between independent countries. It is important that during past two years both the Prime-Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan in several platforms reconfirmed the commitment to the Alma-Ata Declaration, reconfirmed the recognition of territorial integrity based on the Alma-Ata Declaration as well as reconfirmed that the process delimitation of borders should be carried out based on the Alma-Ata Declaration. In principle, it means that during the delimitation the borders which existed at the moment of dissolution of the USSR should be reproduced on the ground.”