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Azerbaijani top diplomat invites Armenia to return to negotiating table

Jeyhun Bayramov stressed that it would be wrong to say that there had been no progress in the negotiations over the past six months

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/TASS

BAKU, February 28. /TASS/. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov slammed online diplomacy on the peace treaty with Armenia ineffective and urged Yerevan to return to the negotiating table.

"Now we don’t have this element of face-to-face meetings. But in order not to completely kill the process, the Azerbaijani side does not refuse to receive and send comments, that is what I meant by online diplomacy. That is, there is just forwarding of comments. Do we consider this the most productive method of communication in discussing the draft peace treaty? I don’t think so," the Azerbaijani top diplomat said on Tuesday at a press conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Bayramov stressed that it would be wrong to say that there had been no progress in the negotiations over the past six months. "There is some progress. But if we were more result-oriented, if we faced fewer unpleasant surprises, we could have had a better result. And I think that the Armenian side will finally understand the inadequacy of such an approach to the current situation and return to the negotiating table. The Azerbaijani side is ready for that," he added.

The Azerbaijani top diplomat noted that "the sooner Armenia changes its position and returns to the negotiating table, the more useful it will be for the normalization process."

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