BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 29. Normalizing relations with Azerbaijan will open such opportunities for Armenia that probably today it is difficult even to predict, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the international conference under the motto “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation”, Trend reports.
"There have been already several times proposals from Azerbaijan supported by leading international organizations to organize trilateral meetings on different levels. We suggested on the levels of foreign ministers. Armenia refused. Then, there was a suggestion to have this meeting on the level of experts, again Armenia refused. Then we suggested to have this meeting on the level of representatives of civil society, and again Armenia refused. This is known by our partners and we do not understand why. Because we think it is counter-productive if we looked to the future of South Caucasus as integrated area of security, cooperation, and shared prosperity then this policy of Armenia is beyond any logic. Probably, they need some time, probably, they need to evaluate risks which they think may occur from that. But I think it’s inevitable, and we are ready and our Georgian colleagues are ready. So, I think that could be a first step and with respect to financial package for the region you know how Azerbaijan and Georgia have integrated taking into account the energy and transportation routes you are a good expert on that. And I think there are also opportunity to invite Armenia to be a part of regional development and they will benefit from that. They will benefit from getting access to our energy resources. They can be to a certain degree a part of the international transportation corridors. So that in itself will generate additional wealth. And also, normalizing relations with Azerbaijan will open such opportunities for Armenia that probably today it is difficult even to predict," the head of state said.