The Caucasus has shown the world the way to normalization through diplomatic and trade relations is something that even the most determined opponents can achieve, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Elin Suleymanov, wrote in an article for The Telegraph newspaper, Report informs.
Suleymanov noted that one of the first outcomes of direct contacts between Baku and Yerevan following the Second Karabakh War was Armenia's decision in late 2023 to support Azerbaijan's bid to host COP29, which was held in Baku a year later.
He also highlighted that the sides agreed on border delimitation procedures and are discussing cooperation within the framework of the Trump International Route for Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project.
"The economic connectivity between our two countries has started in earnest even before TRIPP completes its negotiation stage. A year ago, a breakthrough lifted transit sanctions on Armenia, allowing goods destined for Armenia to travel through Azerbaijani territory. Two months later, Azerbaijan delivered its first shipment of domestically produced petrol to Armenia, and by the middle of this year tens of thousands of tons of fuel products had been successfully exported from Azerbaijan to our neighbor," Suleymanov wrote.
According to the ambassador, this newly introduced regional supply chain has reduced domestic fuel costs for Armenians by 20 to 30 percent – and is helping to reduce Armenia's overdependence on a single, Chernobyl-design, Soviet-built nuclear power plant for its energy production.
"Still, few would dare to imagine at the height of the war in 2020 what would be both possible and already delivered six short years later. The Caucasus has shown the world the way to normalization through diplomatic and trade relations is something that even the most determined opponents can achieve. A treaty formalizing that peace is the next step. We must hope other parts of the world wracked by war can take courage and hope from what we have delivered," he concluded.