The Caucasus has showed the world the way to normalisation through diplomatic and trade relations is something that even the most determined opponents can achieve.

Axar.az reports that Azerbaijan's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Elin Suleymanov, wrote this in an article for The Telegraph newspaper.

The Ambassador said the fruits of those first, direct diplomatic contacts are clear for the world to see: in late 2023, the government of Armenia agreed to support Azerbaijan’s bid to host COP29, which took place a year later in our capital Baku.

"Our two countries have now agreed on the process of delimitation of the border, something that was impossible when the same border areas were under Armenia’s military occupation, and are now discussing cooperation on TRIPP, the Trump International Route for Peace and Prosperity – a US-led initiative for a road and rail link extending from the Caspian Sea in the East through to Turkiye in the Mediterranean, which Azerbaijan has long proposed under a different name," he noted.

He also highlighted that the economic connectivity between our two countries has started in earnest even before TRIPP completes its negotiation stage. A year ago, a breakthrough lifted transit sanctions on Armenia, allowing goods destined for Armenia to travel through Azerbaijani territory. Two months later, Azerbaijan delivered its first shipment of domestically produced petrol to Armenia, and by the middle of this year tens of thousands of tons of fuel products had been successfully exported from Azerbaijan to our neighbour.

"Still, few would dare to imagine at the height of the war in 2020 what would be both possible and already delivered six short years later. The Caucasus has showed the world the way to normalisation through diplomatic and trade relations is something that even the most determined opponents can achieve. A treaty, formalising that peace is the next step. We must hope other parts of the world wracked by war can take courage and hope from what we have delivered," he concluded.