The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions dealing with the border delimitation process held a fresh joint meeting earlier in the day.
In a statement, the ministry said they agreed to start delimiting the border from its northernmost section: “from the point of intersection of the borders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and then in the southern direction, from north to south,” towards Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s borders with Iran. It gave no further details, saying only that the two sides will set the date of the next meeting “in a working manner.”
It also remained unclear which maps or other legal documents will be used by Baku and Yerevan in the delimitation process. The Armenian statement said in this regard that the parties “discussed draft guidelines on the procedure for carrying out the delimitation work.”
The Armenian government insisted until last fall that Soviet military maps drawn in the 1970s should be the main blueprint for the border delimitation. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, who heads the Armenian delegation in the border talks, indicated in October a change in this position rejected by Baku.
Baku and Yerevan worked out in August “regulations” for joint activities of the two commissions. That agreement came four months after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian controversially agreed to cede four disputed border areas to Azerbaijan.
The unilateral land transfer sparked massive anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan in May and June. Protest leaders said that it will encourage Baku to demand further Armenian concessions without ceding anything in return.