Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, fought two wars, in the early 1990s and in 2020, with the aim of controlling the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inhabited by an Armenian majority and unilaterally separated from Azerbaijan three decades ago.
European Council President Charles Michel spoke of “progress” in the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan that took place Sunday in Brussels, calling for “maintaining the momentum” to reach a peace agreement.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, fought two wars, in the early 1990s and in 2020, with the aim of controlling the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inhabited by an Armenian majority and unilaterally separated from Azerbaijan three decades ago.
After a lightning war during which Baku took control of lands in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the fall of 2020, Baku and Yerevan signed a ceasefire mediated by Moscow.
The meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is the fifth within the framework of European mediation, and it took place after a week that witnessed new confrontations on the border between the two countries, which resulted in the death of an Armenian and an Azerbaijani soldier.
However, Charles Michel confirmed after the meeting that the two sides “share a common will for peace,” describing their talks as “frank, open and fruitful.”
“Following the recent positive talks that took place in the United States on a peace treaty, it is useful to maintain the momentum to take decisive measures aimed at signing a comprehensive peace agreement,” he said.
The European official was referring to the four-day talks at the beginning of May in Washington between the delegations of Armenia and Azerbaijan under the auspices of the United States.
Michel said that the two sides agreed to resume bilateral meetings on border demarcation, adding that “clear progress” has been made to resume transport and “especially on reopening railway lines” towards and through the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, located between Armenia and Iran.
Also, the two sides agreed to release more detainees “in the coming weeks,” according to Michel.
A new meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev is expected to take place on June 1 in Moldova, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Charles Michel, on the sidelines of the second summit of the European Political Group.