10:38,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is obstructing the unblocking of regional infrastructures, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan told Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, during a meeting on Thursday.

In a readout, the foreign ministry said Kostanyan and Klaar “discussed the recent developments on regional security and establishment of peace.”

“In this context, the Deputy Foreign Minister drew the attention of interlocutors to the destructive statements made by the President of Azerbaijan in his recent interview, which aim to deviate from the peace agenda. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vahan Kostanyan stressed that the former USSR member states, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, recognize each other's borders in accordance with the Alma-Ata Declaration of December 1991, and the delimitation work should be carried out on the basis of the latest maps available at the time of the dissolution of the USSR. The Deputy Minister also emphasized the imperative of the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia. Vahan Kostanyan noted that Azerbaijan is hindering the process of unblocking regional infrastructures, the 4 well-known principles of which — sovereignty, jurisdiction, reciprocity and equality — have been previously agreed between the parties,” the ministry said.