BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. The 3+3 platform (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Iran, Türkiye) was never seen as a platform to resolve conflicts, Azerbaijan's Presidential Representative for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov said in an interview with BBC TV channel, Trend reports.
"The idea of creating the consultative '3+3' regional platform was put forward by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev right after the end of the second Karabakh war at the end of 2020. The idea was to bring together three states of South Caucasus – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, as well as our three immediate neighbors – Türkiye, Russia and Iran in order to explore the possibilities of engaging in regional cooperation and interaction in various fields in the post-conflict period," he said.
"There is a widely shared view that the time for war in South Caucasus is over, and now we have good chances to embark in a period of consolidating peace, stability and enhancing development in our regions, because there is untapped potential for practical cooperation in fields like connectivity, transport, energy, trade, science and so on," he emphasized.
Amirbayov noted that participants of the recent '3+3' Tehran meeting adopted a joint communiqué, which inter alia clearly outlined the view that regional countries should have the primary role and responsibility to address regional problems and outstanding issues, which means that the regional countries want to enhance their sense of ownership over the processes in the South Caucasus, and they reject any harmful external interference in their affairs.
"Basically, this platform has never been envisaged as a platform to resolve any conflict situations. The idea of President Ilham Aliyev at the beginning was that after we’re done with the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, to engage in regional cooperation. But unfortunately, there are some attempts from external non-regional countries, who are pursuing their internal agendas and try to impose some of their solutions to the problems in the region proceeding from domestic agendas. They somehow try to ignite tension in the South Caucasus and also put in jeopardy the prospects of achieving long-standing peace," he said.
Amirbayov noted that now, after Azerbaijan has restored its sovereign control over all of its internationally recognized territory, and after it has put an end to illegal Armenian military presence in its territories, there is a big chance for Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize negotiations on the draft peace agreement which has been on the table already for about one year.
"And I think that Armenia and Azerbaijan today also share the view that the time has come to seize this opportunity and to finalize these negotiations. But that is not something which is going to be done within the 3+3 regional consultative platform. It is going to be done through direct bilateral negotiations between Baku and Yerevan on the basis of fundamental principles which are reflected in the draft peace agreement," he said.