BAKU. April 19 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to start a border delimitation process, the Azerbaijani state commission for the delimitation of the border with Armenia said on Friday.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian border delimitation commissions led by Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan held an eighth meeting on the border between the two countries on April 19 to reach a number of agreements, it said.
In particular, at the initial stage of the delimitation process, the parties tentatively agreed on the passage of certain border sections between the communities of Baghanis (Armenia) and Baghanis Ayrum (Azerbaijan), between Voskepar (Armenia) and Ashaghy Eskipara (Azerbaijan), between Kirants (Armenia) and Kheyrimli (Azerbaijan), and between Berkaber (Armenia) and Gyzylgadzhily (Azerbaijan) in order to bring them into line with the legally substantiated border between the two former republics of the Soviet Union just before its breakup.
The parties also agreed that these border sections would be described upon reviewing their coordinates based on in-situ geodesic measurements, which would be formalized in a description protocol that the parties are supposed to agree upon and sign by May 15, 2024.
They also decided that the relevant national commissions would ask their respective governments to simultaneously deploy their border forces along the agreed-upon border sections and that, before the entire delimitation process has been completed, the border sections indicated in the description protocol would be regarded as delimitated.
They agreed to complete the drafting of provisions regulating the joint work of the delimitation commissions by July 1, 2024, and "commence the process of national clearance procedures and endorse the provisions in line with national laws," it said.
The commissions also agreed that the delimitation process would be based on the 1991 Almaty Declaration.
"Apart from this, the parties decided that, after endorsing the provisions, they would agree on the succession in which all the other border sections are to be delimitated, including as concerns enclaves and exclaves, and continue the delimitation process," it said.
The commissions signed a protocol and agreed to decide on a date and venue of the next meeting in due course.