We have agreed to continue contacts – Pashinyan

During a meeting in Brussels with the President of Azerbaijan, we reaffirmed our decision to build the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting today.

“An agreement was reached as a result of the discussions of the Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia trilateral working group on the opening of regional communications, which was co-chaired by deputy prime ministers of the three countries. The agreement was reached during a meeting mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on November 26. All this was recorded at a meeting mediated by the President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels.

The railway will operate in accordance with internationally accepted border-customs rules, on a reciprocal basis, under the sovereignty of countries. Armenia will have access to Iran and Russia via this railway. Azerbaijan will have a railway connection with Nakhichevan.

If we manage to start a certain effective dialogue with Turkey, if we manage to reach the opening of the border-communications, this project can get on a much larger scale, in fact, the railway we are talking about exists from Yeraskh to Gyumri, you know, and from Gyumri to Kars. But I say all this because we have to start building the railway. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done before construction. Our intention and desire is to have that railway as soon as possible. I don’t want to overestimate the significance of this agreement, but I also don’t want to underestimate it. This is a strong agreement, I hope we will implement it correctly. It will significantly change the economic, investment, political and security environment of the region. In the near future we must also focus on solving this problem,” Pashinyan said.

He added that he Aliyev agreed to continue contacts, trying to develop common views and approaches to overcome the existing differences.