Azerbaijan restores Armenian-destroyed railway network

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that Azerbaijan is working to restore the railway network destroyed by Armenia during the Karabakh conflict, Trend reported on November 17.

Bayramov made the remarks during the panel discussions on EU-Azerbaijan relations held at the Press Club Brussels Europe.

He added that Azerbaijan has agreed to Armenia's participation in this network as well.

“The construction of the railway network will play a role in establishing ties among Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Armenia and will also be beneficial for the East-West corridor between Asia and Europe,” Bayramov said.

He underlined that the transportation projects and unblocking of the communications will benefit not only specific countries but also the entire region as a whole.

 “Azerbaijan intends to contribute to the expansion of cooperation in the South Caucasus. Unfortunately, we have not received a clear answer from Armenia regarding this issue,” Bayramov stressed.

Bayramov noted that some promising signals were received from the tripartite working group, which includes Russia’s, Azerbaijan’s and Armenia’s deputy prime ministers.

“We hope that Armenia will soon take steps in connection with the implementation of projects and achievement of concrete results,” he added.

To recap, Azerbaijan, along with Turkey earlier offered a new regional cooperation format that would involve all six countries in the region, including Armenia.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced Baku's willingness for a new regional cooperation platform at a press conference on December 10, 2020.

The six-sided platform is the idea of launching a consultative regional mechanism with the participation of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran, and Turkey.

It is believed that the cooperation platform will meet the interests of all its potential participants, contribute to strengthening peace, confidence, lead to stimulating economic processes and cooperation in the South Caucasus. 

The document signed on January 11, 2021, envisages the unblocking of transport communications in the region after Baku and Yerevan reached a ceasefire deal in November 2020 after the 44-day war.

The latest meeting of the trilateral working group was held under the joint chairmanship of the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian deputy prime ministers in Moscow on October 20.

During the first part of the eighth meeting, Shahin Mustafayev, Aleksey Overchuk and Mher Grigoryan considered the prospects of restoring transport communications in the South Caucasus region and the course of further work within the framework of the trilateral statement signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders on January 11, 2021.

The parties agreed to hold the second part of the eighth meeting in the near future.