Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and head of the Foreign Policy Department Hikmet Hajiyev stated that the South Caucasus has already entered a phase of peace. He made the remarks during a panel discussion at the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
Hajiyev emphasized that resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is of key importance for the region, APA reports.
He also noted that steps toward normalizing relations with Armenia are ongoing, adding that a relevant agreement was initialed in August last year with the participation of U.S. leadership.
According to him, the settlement model proposed over the past 30 years by external actors and promoted by the OSCE Minsk Group failed to deliver results.
“This once again shows that real results in the region can only be achieved through local ownership and leadership,” he said.
He added that a “new status quo” has now emerged and that the South Caucasus has entered a phase of peace, even as new conflicts arise in nearby regions.
Hajiyev stressed that regional ownership does not imply isolation, but rather creates broader opportunities for cooperation with other regions.
On August 8, during a trilateral meeting at the White House attended by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, a joint declaration was signed summarizing the outcomes of the talks.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in the presence of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the U.S., initialed the agreement “On Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
