Preparations begin for Armenia-Azerbaijan peace negotiations

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev instructed their foreign ministers to "start preparations for peace negotiations between the two countries", during a meeting held Wednesday in Brussels with the mediation of the European Union.

He added that "an agreement was reached during the meeting (...) to form a bilateral committee on border demarcation issues."

The statement indicated that this committee will be tasked with ensuring security and stability along the borders, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.

The Brussels meeting follows a new rise in the level of tension in Nagorno-Karabakh, where Russian "peacekeepers" have been deployed since November 2020.

In November 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement, ending a six-week war between the two former Soviet republics for control of the "breakaway" Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The conflict left more than 6,500 people dead, and ended with a severe defeat for Armenia, which was forced to cede to Azerbaijan large swathes of territory it had controlled since the 1990s.

T/S

ANHA