Upon arriving in Armenia on Sunday night, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took to social media to post a photo with the Artsakh flag and highlighted that Artsakh mainly was inhabited by Armenians.
While the topic of Artsakh did not come up in his official presentations in Yerevan, Steinmeier urged Baku to “not waste time,” and sign a peace agreement with Yerevan.
He praised Armenia for being “highly constructive” in its steps to secure a peace deal with Azerbaijan.
Speaking at a joint press conference with President Vahagn Khachatryan, he emphasized that importance for Armenia and Azerbaijan to “take the final steps in establishing peace.”
“There are no open issues left in the text of the peace agreement, so there are no obstacles for its signing,” Steinmeier said, urging Azerbaijan to “drop all doubts.”
“We all witnessed that Armenia has been acting highly constructively in the past weeks. There are no more outstanding issues in the peace agreement and nothing hinders its signing, ratification and implementation. Armenia has made decisions that made the peace agreement possible, and now all possible skepticisms in Azerbaijan must be eliminated,” the German president said.
He said the people in the South Caucasus have been waiting for the long conflict to end, which will lead to economic development, among others.
“It wasn’t easy for Armenia to end the conflict and achieve resolution. Many countries can take an example from this process,” the German president said.
Steinmeier also said Armenia’s decision to adopt a bill to begin the process of seeking membership in the European Union was a “bold step.”
“We have great respect for that decision,” he said, referring to the passage of the relevant legislation. “It is a bold step. There’s a lot of work to be done aimed at reforms, and we also spoke about the need for reforms. I have the impression that there is a realistic understanding in Armenia that the path towards the EU is a long one.”
Steinmeier also discussed advancing relations between Armenia and Germany during meetings with Khachatryan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The German leader also visited the Dzidzernagapert Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex.
Steinmeier will travel to Baku on Tuesday.
