The statements about keeping the visit of Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev secret are absolutely irrelevant, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press briefing on Thursday.

According to him, maintaining confidentiality norms is also dictated by security considerations. Pashinyan added that the deputy PM of Armenia also had visited Azerbaijan earlier, and those confidentiality rules were also observed there.

“And information leaks can never be ruled out. In the case of Azerbaijan, there was no such leak, [but] in the case of Armenia, there was,” Pashinyan noted.

In his assessment, a very important event has taken place. Pashinyan said that the mutual visits of the Armenian and Azerbaijani deputy premiers are historic in terms of institutionalizing the peace process.

He emphasized that normal—and in the long term, good-neighborly—relations should be established between the countries.

Also, Nikol Pashinyan assured that the dance held at Yerevan’s Republic Square had nothing to do with the visit of the Azerbaijani deputy PM.

“When the Azerbaijani deputy prime minister visits Armenia, should life in Armenia be stopped so that there would be no room for comment? We should receive any international guest as well as possible,” the Armenian premier concluded.