Top Azerbaijani Official Flies to Yerevan to Attend Border Delimitation Meeting

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev flew to Yerevan on Wednesday and later was part of a meeting with his Armenian counterpart. The two then agreed on guidelines for border delimitation efforts between the two countries.

What differed from previous such meetings of the commissions to delimit the state borders was the Mustafayev flew to Yerevan. Prior meetings reportedly were held at Armenia’s Aghveran where the officials had arrived by vehicles and did not fly into each other’s capitals.

Azerbaijani media began circulating reports in the early hours of Wednesday of Mustafayev’s official government plane taking off to Yerevan. Armenia’s foreign ministry later confirmed the Azerbaijani official’s unprecedented arrival in Armenia’s capital.

Joining Mustafayev at the meeting in Aghveran later in the day was Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and each country’s commission members.

It was reported by News.am that in addition to the official delegations members of Armenia’s business community were also in attendance, which was also a first in such meetings.

Businessmen Samvel Aleksanyan and Boris Hovhannisyan who is the director of the Sukiasyan family’s Ran Oil company were joined by several other business leaders also attended the meeting, reported News.am.

During the meeting, the parties held detailed discussions on organizational and technical issues related to the border delimitation process.

They agreed on and exchanged draft texts of the several guidelines concerning the implementation of delimitation work, including the inclusion of expert groups in the process, as well publication of relevant delimitation maps and documents, according to an official statement issued following the meeting.

The guidelines are pending approval by respective governments.

“The sides also welcomed that Azerbaijan is supplying petroleum products to Armenia, describing it as evidence of the formation of trade and economic ties between the two countries,” the official statement said.

“A separate discussion was also held with the participation of representatives of business circles from both sides on the development of trade and economic cooperation, mutual supply of goods and services, and transit transportation,” the statement added.