Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a standoff since 2023 and are now making substantial diplomatic progress together to reach a resolution but peace treaty is not on the cards.
To discuss regional security issues and bring comprehensive peace in the South Caucasus, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan conducted a meeting with Timothy Musa Kabba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone on September 23.
The interlocutors discussed the importance of signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and the efforts being taken in that direction.
Now, Armenian and Azerbaijani officials are set to meet at the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly meeting along with the Western bloc also mediating prioritizing a peace agreement to avert further conflict. The United States and France have been at the forefront of the resolution of conflict and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is likely to jointly meet with his counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Hasmik Tolmajyan, the Armenian ambassador in Paris said, “Armenia has shown multiple times its sincere hope and determination to reach a just and durable peace in the region, with the establishment of relations between the two countries based on respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
On the other hand, there are some outstanding issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan which can not be swept under the rug as Azerbaijan’s ambassador in Paris, Leyla Abdullayeva, said that the two sides agreed on nearly 80% of the points in a draft peace treaty. To put an end to the existing obstacles, both sides agreed to delineate a 12-kilometer border segment, but differences have emerged regarding the finalization of this understanding.
Azerbaijan has two main demands from Armenia, one involves offering a ground link to Turkey in the form of transportation access to its exclave of Nakhchivan, separated by Armenian territory. Second, Azerbaijan requires Armenia to remove the constitutional provision of unifying with Karabakh.
Armenia is arming itself extensively after rising tensions between the two Caucasus neighbours reached a tipping point since Baku re-captured the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh last September in a lightning military offensive.
