Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister: We have already de facto achieved peace

We have already achieved peace de facto.

This was stated by Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov, speaking at the general debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

"Despite the fact that the decades-long conflict with Armenia brought severe tragedies to our people and left deep wounds on our land, Azerbaijan chose a path toward the future and decided to turn the page on enmity.

We offered Armenia peace based on mutual recognition and respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, fully in line with the norms and principles of international law.

As a result of our normalization efforts, historic results were achieved at the Washington Peace Summit last August. At the summit, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the presence of the President of the United States of America Donald Trump, signed a Joint Declaration. In this Declaration, both sides confirmed the end of the conflict and their shared will to build a peaceful and prosperous future. The parties also initialed the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations.

We have already achieved peace de facto. Furthermore, Azerbaijan unilaterally lifted transit restrictions, facilitating the transportation of goods to and from Armenia. We have also established bilateral trade relations. Despite growing instability in international markets and increasing global demand for these products, Azerbaijan regularly supplies strategically important petroleum products to Armenia.

As the peace agenda initiated by Azerbaijan advances, our entire region is becoming a promising hub of stability, transport connectivity, and tangible economic benefits.

To ensure the irreversibility of this process, it is crucial to remove the remaining obstacle and create conditions for the completion of the normalization process through the signing of the already initialed bilateral agreement."

"Along with the regional normalization process, Azerbaijan's post-conflict agenda is ultimately aimed at enabling hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis to exercise their right to a safe and dignified return to their homes," the Foreign Minister emphasized.