Аzatutyun.am. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will fly to Brussels on Sunday for fresh talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that will be hosted by the European Union’s top official, it was announced on Thursday.
Pashinian’s press office said he will meet with European Council President Charles Michel separately before the trilateral talks. It gave no other details.
Michel will host the Armenian and Azerbaijan leaders for the second time in less than two months.
He described the last Armenian-Azerbaijani summit held on April 6 as “productive,” saying that Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to “move rapidly” towards negotiating a comprehensive “peace treaty” between their nations.
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Yerevan and Baku have still not reached agreements on the agenda and dates of those negotiations. Nor have they started separate talks on demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in line with other understandings reached in Brussels.
Russia responded to the April 6 summit by accusing the West of trying to hijack its efforts to make peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It has been trying to regain the initiative in the peace process.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held on May 12 a trilateral meeting with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Tajikistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the three ministers “reaffirmed the commitment to strict compliance with all provisions” of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow.
Pashinian’s office announced the fresh summit in Brussels amid daily opposition demonstrations in Yerevan aimed at forcing the prime minister to resign. They were sparked by his recent statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament on April 13, Pashinian said the international community is pressing Armenia to scale back its demands on Karabakh’s status and recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He signaled readiness to make such concessions, fuelling more opposition allegations that he is intent on helping Baku regain full control over Karabakh.