Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan described the recent events at the White House — particularly the initial signing of the Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations Agreement — as historic.
In an interview with Armenpress, he called it a key milestone in the process of normalizing Armenia–Azerbaijan relations, adding that with this step, “the institutionalization phase of peace essentially begins.”
“Broadly speaking, the same can be said about unblocking and reactivating infrastructure. I don’t want to create a misleading impression — a very important and fundamental stage of negotiations on the general principles for operating infrastructure has concluded, but it is only one stage. Ahead lies substantial work to clarify and agree on more specific terms and technical solutions.
I would also like to add that the agreements recorded in the Washington Declaration obviously carry even more weight thanks to the participation of the U.S. side and the signature of the U.S. president as a witness,” Mirzoyan said.
He stressed there is no room for differing interpretations on unblocking.
“The operation of infrastructure — including that to be built in Armenia with American partnership — takes place within the framework of countries’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and jurisdiction, and ensures mutual benefits. Whatever the technical solutions, which are yet to be discussed, they cannot go beyond this framework.
Other interpretations are products of imagination or attempts to mislead people. One can only wonder how some so-called ‘independent experts’ or ‘dependent’ party members stubbornly circulate terms that have never been accepted by us before and are not present in the Washington Declaration now. I want to once again stress what is written in black and white: all infrastructure will operate within the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries, with no control by any third party. I don’t think it is possible to state it more clearly.
But I would highlight another crucial and, I would say, cornerstone fact: with the agreement reached in the Washington Declaration, Armenia is unblocked — something the Republic of Armenia has sought for 35 years. From now on, Armenia gains access to and can use Azerbaijan’s railway infrastructure for its international trade,” the foreign minister said.
He noted that the content of the peace agreement is largely known to the public, with clarity on what it includes and excludes.
“On August 11, as agreed with the Azerbaijani side, the text of the initialed agreement will be published. With a presumption of reasonableness, from that moment all speculation will simply end,” he added.
On August 8, during a trilateral meeting at the White House between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, a joint declaration was signed summarizing the meeting’s results. In Washington, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in the presence of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the United States, preliminarily signed the “Agreement on Peace and the Establishment of Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
