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.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan noted. “I would also like to thank the Kazakh side for initiating and organizing this meeting. We in Armenia highly appreciate Kazakhstan’s desire to support its two friendly countries to reach an agreement and to establish lasting peace in the South Caucasus. I would also like to express special gratitude to the President of Kazakhstan, as well as to you, Murat Abugalievich, for your efforts.

Indeed, 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.

I want to emphasize again that Armenia’s efforts are aimed at peace, at concluding the peace treaty. We are engaged in the peace process very constructively, and even more, we should go beyond signing the peace treaty and open the transport communications in the region. We should, we can do that with the understanding that all the infrastructures should remain and operate under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the states through the territory of which they will be passing, and all the border crossing procedures should be agreed upon in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.”