The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia is taking place in Almaty

On May 10, a two day meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia began in Almaty with the mediation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. According to local media reports, Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu initially expressed confidence that the talks would help establish lasting peace in the South Caucasus. "Kazakhstan is ready to impartially carry out the mission of good offices in the good office format, without pretending to be an intermediary," he said.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov expressed gratitude to the Kazakh side for providing a platform for negotiations. "First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Kazakh side, personally to the President of Kazakhstan for his initiative to hold another round of negotiations between the delegations of the two countries," he said. "The last time the delegations met was more than two months ago in Berlin. Since the last meeting, the parties have exchanged comments on the draft peace agreement, and additionally exchanged documents reflecting the positions of the parties. An important element is the protocol signed on April 19 on the beginning of the delimitation of the section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border.

During this time, a large amount of work has been carried out, joint efforts have been carried out to clear sections of the state border, geographical coordinates have been clarified and the installation of border posts is being completed.  We pay great attention to this process and are ready to continue working," Bayramov said.

In turn, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan recalled that it was in Almaty in 1991 that the Alma-Ata Declaration was signed. At that time, 11 former Soviet republics recognized that the administrative borders between them were recognized as interstate borders of independent states, he said.

"The process of delimitation between the two states should take place on the basis of this political document. We think that we should not limit ourselves to signing a peace treaty, we should unblock all transport communications in the region with the understanding that all transport infrastructures will remain under the sovereignty of those countries through whose territory they pass," he said.

After welcoming remarks, the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia began closed-door negotiations.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan will not publish a message on the results of the meeting. Ministers are also not expected to speak to the press.