Armenia and Azerbaijan have no agreement on enclave exchange

There is no formal agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on exchanging enclave and exclave territories. Armenian Deputy Prime Minister and co-chair of the State Commission on Delimitation and Border Security Mher Grigoryan said this to journalists in Yerevan on the sidelines of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17).

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that, commenting on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements that various options for exchanging enclaves had been discussed, Grigoryan stressed that the sides had not reached a final agreement.

Asked about details of the proposals Yerevan had submitted to Baku on the enclave issue, the deputy prime minister declined to provide them, citing the confidentiality of the negotiation process:

“The procedures and legal framework for the border delimitation process have already been clearly defined and formalized. We will continue our work within the approved working procedures between the sides,” Grigoryan said.

He added that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had already provided further explanations about the possibility of an exchange at a news conference.

Earlier, Pashinyan said that enclave and exclave territories should not remain in the future if sustainable security is to be ensured in the border area. He said Armenia and Azerbaijan could exchange the relevant land areas on the basis of precise maps and measurements. Pashinyan added that a territorial exchange would require complex legal and constitutional procedures, as well as comprehensive analysis, and that the option had been on the agenda for a long time.