Hikmat Hajiyev: ‘We evaluate Pashinyan's refusal to meet with Ilham Aliyev in London as a withdrawal from the peace agenda’

Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, has responded to Report’s question.

- Mr. Hajiyev, Armenia-Azerbaijan talks were expected within the framework of the European Political Community Summit in London. Will it happen?

- The UK, which hosts the European Political Community Summit, proposed to hold such a meeting, and it was suggested to be in the format of the meeting held between the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia at the Munich Security Conference.

Thus, during the Munich Security Conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz participated at the beginning of the meeting, and then the meeting continued in a bilateral format between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The UK offered the same format as the host.

But the Armenian side refused. So that, the meeting would begin with the participation of the British Prime Minister, and then it was supposed to continue between Azerbaijan and Armenia in a bilateral format. We consider Armenia's rejection of this meeting as a manifestation of its intention to withdraw from the dialogue and the advancement of the peace agenda.

While Armenia talks about peace on various platforms, it is in no way understandable that it refuses a meeting which serves to advance the peace agenda, and the international community itself should see that Armenia rejects possibilities of dialogue instead of appreciating them.

We, on our part, appreciate such a peace initiative from Great Britain.