NATO hopes recent Azerbaijan-Armenia landmark statement to bring peace in Caucasus

NATO Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colomina has said that the Alliance is very optimistic about the joint declaration signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"We believe that this is very good news. We support the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We support the efforts of the EU and the US in this process, as well as those made by Armenia and Azerbaijan on a bilateral basis,” he said in an interview with the First Georgian Channel, Caliber.Az reports.

“It is really important to us that stability in the Caucasus region is preserved not only through the work that we are doing in Georgia but also through the stability that can be established in Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the NATO representative noted.

Asked whether he sees Yerevan's interest in rapprochement with NATO, Colomina underscored that Armenia has very clearly decided to change its foreign policy and move some distance away from Moscow.

"This is something that we encourage. Armenians are free to make their own decisions, but they have chosen to do so, and I think they are already starting to come closer to us - asking for more cooperation, demanding more political dialogue, demanding more NATO presence. We support any decisions of our partners that we think are useful for the stability of the region. This is very important for us," he added.

On December 7, the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration and the Office of the Armenian Prime Minister Armenia released a joint statement, saying that the two countries “share the view that there is a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region. Two countries reconfirm their intention to normalize relations and to reach a peace treaty based on respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Following the talks between the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration and the Office of the Armenian Prime Minister, an agreement has been reached on taking tangible steps towards building confidence between the two countries.

Moreover, an agreement has been reached to release 32 individuals of Armenian origin by Azerbaijan and two Azerbaijani servicemen by Armenia as a sign of goodwill and humanism, the statement said.

The 32 individuals destined for return to Armenia, 26 of whom were arrested during anti-terror measures in the Hadrut direction in December 2020, with the remaining six detained at the border on different occasions, have already served the majority of their sentences.

The agreement has been reached through direct negotiations between the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration and the Office of the Armenian Prime Minister with no involvement of the third country.