On July 15, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev chaired a meeting on the results of the first half of this year, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani President reported.

“This year, active cooperation was maintained with the European Union. As you know, we are working on a new agreement. A greater part of the text has been agreed upon, and the issues that have not been agreed upon are being discussed. In the near future, an important document will be signed between the European Union and Azerbaijan – a document on energy security, which will raise our cooperation to a higher level,” Aliyev stated.

“At the same time, important steps had been taken in the direction of the development of US-Azerbaijani relations. Reciprocal visits of high-ranking officials have been organized. These relations have both a great history and a bright future,” President added.

“Even though certain steps towards the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations were taken in the first six months of this year, there are no tangible results yet. Although a year and eight months have passed since the Patriotic War, Armenia has unfortunately not fulfilled the obligations it was forced to undertake. 

If we look at the positive points, I can only say that the first meeting of working groups on delimitation was held. We see this as a positive step. A second meeting is scheduled for next month. I believe that the second meeting will be devoted to discussing specific issues,” he flagged on the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

According to him, Azerbaijan's (Jeyhun Bayramov) and Armenia's (Ararat Mirozyan) foreign ministers are meeting tomorrow [July 15]. “This will be the first meeting between the ministers, and we look forward to the meeting producing results. I have had several meetings with the Prime Minister of Armenia, and representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia have also had a meeting. However, there has not been a meeting between foreign ministers, and this will be the first meeting. I think this could be viewed as a good result, and other issues can be discussed,” Ilham Aliyev underlined.

“Unfortunately, even though a year and eight months have passed since the war, apart from that, I cannot recall any positive development. Regrettably, there are more negative developments. One is Armenia's refusal to address the issues identified in the Declaration signed on November 10, 2020. The Declaration of November 10 represents an act of capitulation on the part of Armenia. As a side defeated in the war, Armenia assumed certain obligations. These obligations are explicitly stated there. One of them is the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Karabakh. This issue has not been resolved to this day. We have raised this issue many times, but Armenia keeps delaying it. At the same time, we raised this issue with the Russian military leadership and a high-ranking official of the Russian Defence Ministry. On a visit to Azerbaijan a few months ago, they promised our Defence Ministry that Armenian armed forces would withdraw from Karabakh by June. It is the middle of July, but this issue has not been resolved. Armenia does not fulfill these obligations in violation of the November 10 Declaration. Russian peacekeepers – the Russian side also signed the November 10 Declaration – do not force them to do so, so to speak,” the head of Azerbaijan stated.

The Azerbaijani President highlighted that if Armenia does not intend to withdraw its armed forces from the territory of Azerbaijan, then it should let us know this in clear terms, and we will consider our further actions. What will be our response? It would probably be inappropriate to say it now.

On November 10 Declaration, he added: "The second negative point is that in the November 10 Declaration is that contact was supposed to be established between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and Armenia obediently agreed to this and assumed this obligation. However, so far, we have not been given this opportunity. The Lachin road is open, and we committed in the Declaration of November 10 that the Lachin road would work and that Azerbaijan guarantees the safety of that road. We have taken this upon ourselves as a commitment and are following it. But we do not have the opportunity to go to Nakhchivan from the main part of Azerbaijan. Not only do we not have the opportunity to do that, but we do not even see any work being done in this direction in the territory of Armenia.”

Ilham Aliyev also talked about the Zangezur corridor. "To date, there is no feasibility study for the railway to be built in the Mehri section of the Zangazur corridor. No project can be implemented without a feasibility study, and it takes several months to prepare a feasibility study for constructing a railway. So, this work has not been started yet. The route of the highway has not been given to us.

Another issue is that the head of Armenia has once again started talking about some status lately. However, when the war ended, when Armenia signed the act of capitulation, there was a verbal agreement between us, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia, and Armenia, that the issue of status would not be touched upon again. Armenia followed this for some time, but this talk has recently become commonplace. Their prime minister and then their foreign minister have talked about the status of Karabakh. I said shortly after the war where the status went and what happened to it. I do not want to repeat myself. If someone in Armenia has forgotten this, I can repeat it. But I think it is not necessary for now. Therefore, I think it is hazardous for Armenia to talk about the status because we can also start talking about the status; we can demand status for Zangazur, Zangazur that was taken from us in November 1920. We are not talking about it, but we can see the result.”

Azerbaijani President said about the OSCE Minsk Group: "Attempts are still being made to revive the now-defunct Minsk group. The Minsk Group has now left the stage. We, a country participating in this process, are saying there is no need for the Minsk Group. There is no need for a group that has not produced any results in 28 years. This is what we say. To put it mildly, a cold war is going on between co-chairs of the Minsk Group. They have admitted that the Minsk Group is not functional anymore. The Russian side says that the Minsk Group is no longer active and that the other co-chairs have put an end to this institution. The Armenian side, meanwhile, says every minute that the Minsk Group has done this and that. What does this mean?”

“We are living at our own expense. No one is helping us, never has helped, and never will. Therefore, we are creating our own life. We do not interfere in anyone's affairs. However, at the same time, we will not let anyone interfere in our affairs either. Let me repeat this: economic independence is the cornerstone of political independence,” he concluded.