Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

President Ilham Aliyev has praised the work of the Azerbaijani-Russian-Armenian working group from the standpoint of strengthening regional security and peace, Azertag has reported.

He made the remarks at a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk in Baku on April 1.

"The work of the tripartite working group is progressing well. Very busy consultations are underway. I am regularly updated on this issue... So there is a topic for discussion, and this topic is important today from the point of view of economic preferences, from the point of view of regional cooperation and from the point of view of strengthening security and peace in our region," he said.

The head of state described the ongoing post-war situation as positive and said that "the risks of escalation are minimal". He noted that there will be more elements of cooperation in case of stronger security and stability.

The president also hailed the fact the decision to set up the working group is justifying itself.

"Most importantly, there is already a concrete result. As far as I know, five meetings have already been held both in face-to-face format and in the form of a videoconference," Aliyev said.

In turn, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk thanked the president for the opportunity to meet him and discuss "the work that is being carried out within the framework of the tripartite working group of deputy prime ministers on unblocking economic and transport links in the region".

"Indeed, we have made some progress and the work is being done in close contact. We are always in touch with both the Azerbaijani and the Armenian sides. Indeed, we have established very good contacts here," he said.

A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.