BAKU. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has accused Armenia of being unconstructive about the opening of the Zangezur corridor and said that Baku has a Plan B to open the road without Armenia.
"At some point, we feel that we are close to completing the work, when suddenly, at the last moment, Armenia suggests something new that leads the process to a dead end yet again. This is not constructive and, besides, this violates the respective clause of the trilateral statement by which Armenia undertook to guarantee unhampered traffic of cargo and vehicles," Bayramov said in an interview with the Azerbaijani state-run news agency AzerTaj and the Hungarian weekly Magyar Demokrata during his visit to Hungary.
This approach may create a situation in which Armenia will miss the advantageous opportunity to improve national economy: "the road may simply bypass Armenia," he said.
"Meanwhile, Azerbaijan will keep working on this, as it has a Plan B. We will implement the project even without Armenia's participation, in which case it [Armenia] will not be among the beneficiaries," Bayramov said.
He said the opening of the Zangezur corridor, i.e. unhampered traffic between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, was part of the trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia on November 10, 2020.
"The Zangezur corridor is an element of the East-West transport route. Experts estimate it could add 5-8 million tonnes of cargo [per year] to the Middle Corridor. This is a great advantage for both Azerbaijan, Armenia and other countries," Bayramov said.
As reported, Azerbaijan plans to finalize preparations for opening the Zangezur corridor in its territory in 2024.