Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has described the developments in the White House as ‘historic’, particularly the initialing of the Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which he said was a ‘highly important milestone’ in the normalization process of the two countries.
In an interview with Armenpress, FM Mirzoyan said the initialing of the agreement marks the beginning of the institutionalization of peace.
Question: How would you assess the results of the meetings in Washington, D.C.?
Mirzoyan: In short, what happened in the White House was certainly a historic event. First of all, I mean the initialing of the Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations, which was a highly important milestone in the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process. The initialing and subsequent public statements signaled that peace has already been established in terms of absence of border escalations, and basically the phase of institutionalization of peace is beginning.
By and large the same goes for the unblocking and relaunching of infrastructures. I wouldn’t want to create a misconception: a very important, fundamental phase of negotiations around the general principles for launching infrastructures was completed, yet only one phase. There’s still huge work to be done toward clarifying and finalizing specific terms and technical solutions.
I would like to add that the agreements enshrined in the Washington declaration obviously gain higher significance through US participation in it and the US President’s signature as a witness.
Question: Speaking of infrastructures, analysts and representatives of various political lines have been making various comments and misinterpretations especially around article 3 of the Washington declaration. What is your take?
Mirzoyan: But there is no space for various interpretations. What’s written is what has been agreed upon, one shall read what is written there, understand it the way it is written, no more, no less. And what it says is that the launch of infrastructures, including the one that is yet to be built through American partnership in Armenian territory, shall take place within the framework of the countries’ territorial integrity, sovereignty and jurisdiction, and shall ensure mutual advantages. Again, whatever the technical solutions may be, which are yet to be discussed, they can’t be beyond the framework I mentioned.
All other interpretations are either a result of imagination or an attempt to mislead the people. One can only be amazed how some so-called independent experts or dependent party members – with the stubbornness of a famous animal, are generating wordings which have neither been accepted by us in the past nor included now in the Washington declaration. I’d like to once again underscore what has been written in black and white – all infrastructures will function within the framework of the countries’ sovereignty and jurisdiction; there is no third-party supervision. I think there is no clearer way to say this.
But I would suggest to note another highly important, I’d say crucial reality: under the agreements achieved with the Washington declaration, Armenia is getting unblocked, something Armenia has strived for thirty-five years. Armenia is now gaining access and ability to utilize Azerbaijan’s railway infrastructures for its international trade.
Question: There are speculations also about the peace treaty.
Mirzoyan: We’ve had the opportunity in the past to say that the content of the peace agreement is mostly known to the public, we’ve said what it does and doesn’t contain. On August 11, pursuant to our agreement with the Azerbaijani side, the text of the initialed agreement will be released. I assume that reasonably all speculations will then simply stop.
Question: Bilateral meetings also took place during the visit, memoranda were signed, what does this mean, including for the Armenia-US strategic partnership.
Mirzoyan: Indeed, the visit was important also in terms of advancing the Armenia-US bilateral relations. A number of issues of the strategic partnership agenda were discussed and three memoranda were signed during the Pashinyan-Trump meeting. The Memorandum on capacity building of Crossroads of Peace reflects US support for the Crossroads of Peace project, highlighting Armenia’s important role as a regional transport hub and reiterates the unwavering support of the US for Armenia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of its internationally recognized borders. It aims at boosting Armenia’s infrastructure security and border security. It includes promotion of private investments and strengthening of customs and border capacity.
The Memorandum on AI and semiconductor innovation aims at significantly deepening cooperation in the high-tech area by developing the semiconductor ecosystem and AI applications. It underscores the importance of private investments and public-private cooperation, as well as academic partnership. The parties commit to promote the training of personnel and strengthen technological partnership. The parties also intend to work to secure the necessary conditions to raise Armenia’s status within the framework of US exports control.
The energy security Memorandum is aimed at supporting Armenia’s energy stability and modernization of energy system, promoting private sector investments, as well as develop civilian nuclear cooperation.
The Memorandum also envisions promotion of regional energy cooperation and development of professional capacity, strengthening Armenia’s energy self-sufficiency.
We agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intensify joint work soon toward the implementation of the abovementioned, as well as other components of the strategic partnership.
To sum up, I should say that reaching this milestone was a result of months of meticulously planned work, and at this phase the volume and content of the work shall be further enhanced. Yesterday, President Trump signed an order to set up the task force dealing with the implementation of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, and we expect high-level discussions soon in Yerevan in this direction, to make use of this important momentum to pass down a more interconnected Southern Caucasus to future generations.
