BAKU: Azerbaijan has removed all restrictions on cargo transit to Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday, in a sign of warming ties between the former foes following nearly four decades of conflict.
Aliyev told Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at a meeting in Astana that a shipment of Kazakh grain via Azerbaijan to Armenia marked the first such consignment since transit was halted in the final years of the Soviet Union, when war initially broke out between the two neighbors.
“I think this is also a good indicator that peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia is no longer on paper, but in practice,” Aliyev was quoted by Azerbaijani state media as saying.
Hikmet Hajjiyev, Aliyev’s foreign policy aide, told Reuters that the cargo shipments would travel to Armenia via Georgia, calling the transit “an economic benefit of peace.”
A spokeswoman for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed Aliyev’s move as a “step of great importance for opening regional communications, strengthening mutual trust, and institutionalizing the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
