BRAZIԼ — As part of his official visit to Brazil, the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, gave an interview to _Folha_, one of Brazil’s largest and most influential daily newspapers.
Responding to a question regarding the finalization of the peace treaty text with Azerbaijan, Minister Mirzoyan stated:
“After decades of conflict, we have the feeling and confidence that there is a real opportunity to turn the page on enmity in our region and establish genuine peace and lasting stability.
But to make this a reality, we need a constructive approach from both sides. In Armenia, we see this opportunity and are fully committed to the peace agenda. Together with our colleagues from Azerbaijan, we have finally managed to finalize the draft treaty.
This peace treaty establishes some very important points that, if signed, ratified, and implemented, could serve as a solid foundation to build upon. I’m mainly referring to the mutual recognition of territorial integrity. We recognize this integrity based on the borders that existed between our countries at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 — this is crucial.
We also commit to refraining from the use of force and from interfering in each other’s internal affairs, among other terms. We are ready to immediately start consultations on the location and date of the signing.
Unfortunately, however, we see that Azerbaijan is introducing various new preconditions — artificial ones, I would say — into the peace agenda, making it more difficult to sign this treaty and establish institutionalized peace.
We are almost there; we just need to show a little more political will — a strong political will — to meet and sign.
We have also proposed unblocking transportation links, starting with the railway that operated during Soviet times, and suggested a bilateral arms control and verification mechanism, as Azerbaijan has also expressed concerns on this matter.”
When asked whether the signing of the treaty is still possible despite the preconditions posed by Azerbaijan, Minister Mirzoyan responded:
“We are ready to sign immediately. But what we hear from Azerbaijan does not give the impression that they are ready. Unfortunately, as I said, they keep introducing new preconditions.”
The interview also touched upon bilateral relations between Armenia and Brazil.
**Q: During your visit to the Itamaraty (Brazilian Foreign Ministry), you spoke about trade relations and had discussions on climate issues. How was the visit?**
**Minister Mirzoyan:** “We attach great importance to this visit, as there had been no mutual visits for quite some time. Now, we have decided to intensify our political dialogue with Brazil.
We have a very successful and mutually beneficial cooperation in international fora. We support each other’s candidacies whenever and wherever possible.
We share almost the same vision of reforming global governance and the entire system of international relations, because we see that the current system does not function properly — especially when it comes to early warning mechanisms or preventing serious violations and mass violence.
Brazil will host COP30, and Armenia will host COP17 on biodiversity in 2026. We appreciate the support we received from Brazil during the elections. These two events naturally bring us closer together. We also intend to organize and implement some joint events, most likely.”
**Q: What are your expectations for COP30?**
**Minister Mirzoyan:** “It is difficult to say. But what I can affirm is that COP30 should probably pay more attention to the needs of developing countries and the Global South in general.
I believe that, according to various assessments, this aspect has been somewhat absent in previous COPs.”