Ilham Aliyev: We hope Armenia will complete their part of homework

"First of all, I had a meeting with President of European Council Charles Michel. For one hour we discussed a broad range of issues, and of course, concentrated mainly on post-conflict situation, the situation which is now emerged after the war of the last year. Of course, the efforts of the European Commission are aimed at the facilitating the normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. And we highly value the efforts of the Commission and President Michel in particular. He visited Azerbaijan and Armenia this summer. We are in permanent contact after his visits. So, he seems aware about the details. You know the situation and of course, we highly value his personal involvement," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper on Dec. 15, Report informs via Azertag.

"Later in the evening, we had a trilateral meeting and it lasted more than four hours. I think it was very productive. So, both sides clarified their positions once again mainly about the new realities which emerged after the second Karabakh war. How to adjust to these realities? How to learn to live as neighbors. And of course, we discussed the practical elements of the post-war situation, particularly the opening of communications. This is an important part of the trilateral statement which was signed by President of Russia, Prime Minister of Armenia and myself last November. But implementation of this important part of the statement is going very slow. So, yesterday the important decisions were made about the immediate activity by Armenia in order to start practical implementation of the railroad project. As far as we are concerned, we already started. The railroad from liberated territories to Armenian border must be ready by the end of 2023. We of course, hope that by that time Armenia will complete their part of the homework. And of course, we raised other issues, issues with respect to the demining. President Michel expressed his willingness to help Azerbaijan to cope with this situation, because after the war ended, we had almost 200 people killed or seriously injured because of the landmines. Also we discussed humanitarian issues, and many others. So, it was really a very productive discussion and I am very satisfied," President Aliyev said.