The president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the prime minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, had an unscheduled informal meeting on the margins of the summit of the heads of state and government of the Commonwealth of Independent States which took place on 27-28 September in the capital of Tadjikistan, Dushambe.
On his return to Yerevan, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan took to a live broadcast on facebook to speak about the meeting. According to the semi official Armenpress news agency, Pashinyan said:
"This time we had more practical conversation based on which we recorded a number of important points. We agreed that we will task our defense ministers to take measures to de-escalate the situation and to prevent border incidents. I think this is an important agreement".
In his broadcast the Armenian prime minister added, "the President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan has also been informed about this agreement. "I have given relevant instructions to our Armed Forces and I can say that the previous night was the most peaceful since I was elected Prime Minister", the prime minister said.
Nikol Pashinyan also emphasized that during the conversation the commitment to the negotiation process was recorded. "We agreed to establish operative communication channels but we have not agreed about its technical implementation", Pashinyan said, adding that there were no other discussions.
"I am happy and hope that those agreements will be respected, since they are extremely important", PM Pashinyan said.
The Azerbaijani news agency, TREND, citing the press service of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, reported that on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Dushanbe, a conversation took place between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.
"The sides expressed their commitment to the talks on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, strengthening the ceasefire regime to prevent incidents on the contact line of the sides and on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.The parties decided to work out mechanisms for establishing an operational link between the relevant structures", according to the report.
source: commonspace.eu with armenpress.am
photo: CIS Heads of State and government pose for a picture at their summit in Dushambe on 27-28 September 2018 (picture courtesy of Belarus News Agency, BELTA)
