Officials have announced that Armenia will withdraw all its troops from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by September this year, a region over which it has fought two wars with Azerbaijan.

The Secretary-General of the Armenian Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, told the official news agency Armenpress that "the units of the Armenian armed forces are gradually returning to Armenia since the ceasefire began, the operation is nearing completion and will end in September," noting that the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh "guaranteed" the security of the ethnic Armenian population there.

Last week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized what he described as the "too slow" Armenian withdrawal.

The foreign ministers of both countries met last weekend in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in a first direct talk since the outbreak of the war. The meeting reportedly concerned an agreement reached by Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in May, mediated by the EU.

Also, in April and May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President met to discuss a peace agreement mediated by EU Council President Charles Michel.