The expert members of the core team of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Joint Liaison Group on Confidence-building measures in support of lasting peace in the South Caucasus (JOLIG) met in Bonn on 2-3 May 2024. Attending the meeting were Benyamin Poghosyan (Armenia); Johnny Melikyan (Armenia), Stepan Grigoryan (Armenia), Ahmad Alili (Azerbaijan) and Ramazan Samadov (Azerbaijan).
During the meeting, participants noted the important steps in the process of building trust and confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan taken as a result of direct negotiations, and the agreements between the governments of the two countries and their statement of 7 December 2023 and the protocol signed on 19 April 2024, which amongst other things resulted in the release of detainees, in an agreement to hold COP29 in Baku in November 2024, and in an agreement on the demarcation and delineation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on 1991 Almaty declaration.
Participants reviewed the work done by JOLIG in the process of building trust and confidence, and facilitating dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the summer of 2021, and positively assessed those steps achieved despite difficult regional and international conditions. JOLIG is now in the process of wrapping up its work to enable a new framework for contact between the expert community in Armenia and Azerbaijan and the wider Caucasus region to emerge.
During their stay in Bonn the members of the Joint Liaison Group also participated in the workshop on “Issues of water scarcity in the South Caucasus: a potential for future conflict or a basis for future co-operation?” and in the Dialogue Meeting: “Climate change, peace and security: COP29 and beyond” jointly organised by LINKS Europe Foundation, Candid Foundation and Restart Initiative and contributed to the discussions.
