Renewed Georgia-Azerbaijani border demarcation commission resumes talks

The joint commission working on the demarcation of the Georgia-Azerbaijani border resumed its work today.

Chaired by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Lasha Darsalia and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Deputy FM Khalaf Khalafov, the Commission held it first meeting in Baku.

The parties discussed the border delimitation process, noting that 2/3 of the border has been agreed on and now it needs further communication over the remaining sections. 

• Talks on resuming the work of the Commission started after Azerbaijani border guards did not allow clerics and visitors to enter the medieval Georgian monastery David Gareji for a couple of days last month.
• David Gareji is a complex of 22 rock-hewn monasteries and more than 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells, located in Georgia’s south-east, at the conditional border with Azerbaijan.

• Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has only demarcated the border with Turkey, while the borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia still need to be agreed upon.

Georgian Foreign Ministry reported after the meeting that that both parties stressed the importance to avoid provocations around the issue and agreed to act with the “spirit of strategic partnership”.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also stated that they expect “the delimitation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Georgia will be finalised shortly”.

The Commission members agreed to meet again next week.