NEW YORK — Azerbaijan and Armenia have already achieved peace in practice, with trade beginning and transit restrictions being lifted, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said Saturday.
Speaking during the general debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26, Bayramov said the understandings reached at the Washington peace summit and the initialing of an agreement on peace and interstate relations had moved the two countries from conflict toward practical normalization.
“We have already achieved de facto peace,” Bayramov said, according to a published account of the speech. He said Azerbaijan had unilaterally removed transit restrictions, facilitating shipments to and from Armenia, while bilateral commercial ties had begun. Baku has also supplied Yerevan with strategically important petroleum products.
Bayramov said one remaining obstacle must be removed before the initialed peace agreement can be signed. The published text of his remarks did not identify that obstacle.
The foreign minister also highlighted Azerbaijan’s role in regional transport. Freight carried through the Middle Corridor using Baku International Sea Trade Port and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has increased by 90%, he said.
Bayramov described the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, as important for establishing an uninterrupted multimodal connection between mainland Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan exclave.
More than 90,000 people now live, study and work in Azerbaijan’s restored territories, Bayramov said. He called land mines a major obstacle to resettlement, saying more than 400 people have been killed or injured by mines since 2020 and more than 3,500 have become mine victims over the past 30 years.
Baku also appealed for international assistance in determining the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis reported missing in connection with the conflict.
Bayramov said Azerbaijan has provided about $400 million in humanitarian, economic and technical assistance to more than 140 countries since 2020, with a particular focus on small island states and African nations.
He said Azerbaijan now supplies natural gas to 16 countries. The country aims to develop 6 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity and increase renewables’ share of electricity generation to 40% by 2030.
Bayramov also urged the five Caspian littoral states to take coordinated action over the sea’s declining water level.
Source: Vesti Baku