The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Istanbul on Friday after a ministerial meeting of the Consultative Regional Platform 3+3.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry reported that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov “agreed to continue efforts to finalize and conclude the agreement in a short period of time.” 

The Platform, comprised of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey, is an initiative of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which seeks to strengthen trade and economic ties between Turkey, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

In his address at the meeting, Mirzoyan said Armenia “strongly believes that responsible approaches and constructive efforts of all regional actors to this end at the same time will largely contribute to achieving peace and stability in the region.”

He touted Armenia’s Crossroads of Peace initiative that envisages achieving peace in the South Caucasus and the greater region through open borders and where the countries are linked via roads, railways, pipelines and electricity grids.

Mirzoyan said Armenia and Türkiye have already agreed to jointly assess the technical requirements for the border crossing by the Gyumri-Kars railway.

Mirzoyan, on Friday, also met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the Platform session and are said to have discussed ongoing talks to normalize relations between their two countries.