Foreign Minister hopeful for progress on POW issue

PanARMENIAN.Net - During a joint press conference in Yerevan with Finland’s Foreign Minister and current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Elina Valtonen, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan revealed that he discussed the issue of Armenian detainees with Azerbaijani counterparts in Sharm El Sheikh.

“We are working on this every day. It’s not always visible or effective — otherwise the issue would have been resolved by now. But the efforts continue,” Mirzoyan said, as reported by Panorama.am .

“Once again, I want to express hope that we will have good news soon. We have not stopped trying. Literally yesterday, we discussed this matter again with our Azerbaijani colleagues in Sharm El Sheikh. Let’s hope our efforts bear fruit in the near future,” he added.

Despite some agreements achieved within the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, several unresolved issues remain, Mirzoyan said.

Among the top unresolved matters, he emphasized the return of Armenian prisoners still held in Baku.

On August 8, during a trilateral meeting in Washington between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, a joint declaration was signed.

At that summit, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani FM Jeyhun Bayramov also initialed the draft “Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan” in the presence of the leaders.