Armenia, Azerbaijan to hold EU-mediated talks

Yerevan: Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan said Thursday that they will meet next week for EU-mediated talks in Brussels, amid renewed tensions over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Caucasus neighbours, which fought a war in 2020 over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated enclave, recently expressed readiness to launch negotiations on a "comprehensive peace treaty," following a flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh this month.

"I plan to meet on April 6 in Brussels with the European Council President Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President" Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting. He added that he hoped "to agree on all the questions related to the start of peace talks" with Baku.

"Armenia once again declares that it is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and to start negotiations without delay," Pashinyan said. Aliyev said the two countries "must advance towards peace and to sign, as soon as possible, a peace agreement."

"Azerbaijan has tabled basic principles for the agreement," he told a news conference. The European Union said that high-ranking Azerbaijani and Armenian officials met in Brussels on Wednesday to prepare the summit. The officials "reviewed the political and security situation and the full spectrum of issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan," a statement said.

"Armenia and Azerbaijan will also address issues related to prospects for a peace agreement between them," it added. The 2020 conflict claimed more than 6,500 lives. It ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades and Moscow deploy peacekeepers to the mountainous region.

Last week, Yerevan and Moscow accused Baku of violating a ceasefire in the Russian contingent’s zone of responsibility. They accused Azerbaijani forces of capturing the strategic village of Farukh in the Askeran region of Karabakh, where three Armenian soldiers were killed in a shootout.