"Let's sign an arms control agreement," was Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's new offer to Azerbaijan on January 13.
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| Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. (Source: Radar Armenia) |
At a meeting with members of the ruling Civil Contract party in the city of Gavar on January 13, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan proposed signing an arms control agreement with Azerbaijan.
At the meeting of the Civil Contract party's initiative group, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke with the notes that after getting acquainted with Azerbaijan's proposals, it sometimes feels like an attempt is being made to create a document that would legitimize future wars.
In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan called Baku's criticism of Yerevan's purchase of weapons from France or India inappropriate. If Azerbaijan believes that Armenia should not have armed forces, the country's right to exist is questioned, and this is completely unacceptable.
Prime Minister Pashinyan added that the issue needed to be considered in the context of regional security, acknowledging that both countries may have concerns about the arms purchase.
On this basis, the two countries need to sign a peace treaty to eliminate the possibility of war. Mr. Pashinyan stated: "Let's sign an arms control agreement so that Armenia and Azerbaijan can reach specific agreements on weapons and have the opportunity to monitor the implementation of this agreement."
According to Prime Minister Pashinyan, if both sides sincerely want to achieve peace, these issues need to be resolved. He noted that Armenia and Azerbaijan use different diplomatic languages so far and there will always be forces, both inside and outside the two countries, that are not interested in peace. Prime Minister Pashinyan concluded that the positions and statements of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are very important in the peace process.
Earlier, on January 10, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that there are practical conditions for signing a peace treaty, so what needs to be done now is to actively include these elements in the official document.
Although he does not oppose the fact that foreign countries want to support the reconciliation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Mr. Aliyev said that there is no need for a guarantor for a peace treaty between the two countries because this is a bilateral issue and the two countries need to resolve it themselves so that the current tension does not become a geopolitical issue.
The Azerbaijani leader also believes that there will be no new conflict with Armenia and he affirmed that he will do everything in his power to prevent this.
Recently, Armenia and Azerbaijan both announced their readiness to sign a peace agreement to end decades of conflict in the Nagorny-Karabakh region - a mountainous region deep inside Azerbaijan but with a majority of ethnic Armenians living there.
Previous internationally mediated peace talks have failed to produce a breakthrough. Although leaders of both countries were confident that a comprehensive peace treaty could be signed by the end of last year, the peace process stalled after Azerbaijan rejected EU- and US-mediated meetings, accusing them of bias in favour of Armenia.
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