Azerbaijan, Armenia 'agree to work' on peace treaty in Brussels talks
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's PM Nikol Pashinyan agree to convene a Joint Border Commission that will delimit and demarcate the bilateral border, European Council chief Charles Michel says.
(From L) Armenian PM Pashinyan, President of European Council Michel, and Azerbaijan's President Aliyev, pose for an official picture before their meeting.
Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia who met in Brussels have agreed "to move rapidly towards a peace agreement" between their countries and ordered a commission that will focus on "border delimitation," the European Council said.
"To this end, it was agreed to instruct ministers of foreign affairs to work on the preparation of a future peace treaty, which would address all necessary issues," Council's President Charles Michel said in a statement on Wednesday.
Michel hosted Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a summit where both sides discussed remaining issues after Baku drove Yerevan's forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020, ending three decades of Armenian occupation there.
"The delimitation and demarcation of their bilateral border will be essential; to this end, in line with the Sochi Statement of 26 November 2021," the statement said.
Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed on convening a Joint Border Commission by the end of April, the statement said, adding commission will "delimit" the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and "ensure a stable security situation along, and in the vicinity of, the borderline."
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Tense ties
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
The territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Clashes erupted on September 27, 2020, between the Armenian army and Azerbaijani forces.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.
In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group on Nagorno-Karabakh.
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