By Heghine Buniatian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — US President Joe Biden has urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to conclude a peace agreement with Armenia before the end of this year.
“A peace agreement would not only ensure Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, it would transform the entire region – paving the way for increased trade, investment, and connectivity between Europe and Central Asia,” Biden said in a letter delivered to Baku by a senior US administration official on Monday, October 21.
“As the world’s attention turns to Baku for COP29 [climate summit,] you have a unique opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to peace in front of a global audience. As you know, finalizing the remaining articles of the peace agreement will require creativity and compromise on all sides. But I am confident that you will continue to meet this moment, and I encourage you to finalize an agreement this year,” added the letter published by Azerbaijan’s official Azertac news agency.
Meeting with the US official, Michael Carpenter, Aliyev reiterated his main precondition for any peace deal with Armenia. a change of the Armenian constitution which he claims contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. He earlier rejected an Armenian proposal to sign a deal containing the vast majority of the 16 articles of a draft peace treaty that have already been agreed upon by the two sides.
Carpenter, who is a special assistant to Biden and senior director for Europe at the US National Security Council, visited Baku three weeks before the start of COP29 in the Azerbaijani capital. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York late last month.
