EU to host peace talks between Armenia, Azerbaijan: POLITICO

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The Armenian Prime Minister and Azerbaijani President are scheduled to hold peace talks this weekend in Brussels, according to reports by Politico citing EU officials. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, will reportedly be hosting the two leaders on May 13-14. 

“We see this as a continuation of efforts for normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, a resumption of the trilateral meetings in the Brussels format, and a follow-up to important and positive peace talks held in Washington last week,” one European Commission official said.

Read more: EU mission deployment on Armenia-Azerbaijan border causes unease: Baku

While the agenda is still not specified, calls for lasting peace between the two Caucasian countries have grown after the negotiations brokered by the US Secretary of State last month. 

The two former Soviet republics have been warring for decades now over territorial disputes. In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a bloody war recapturing the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabkh. In the process, thousands of Armenians and Azerbaijanis were killed. 

Read more: 7 killed in today's Nagorno-Karabkh clashes - reports

Territorial integrity has been the primary cause of discord between the two countries and thus it is expected to be at the top of the agenda. Last month, Pashinyan announced that Yerevan is willing to accept Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan is "within reach" after concluding four days of dialogue in Washington with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

Although no formal agreement has been reached between the two parties, Blinken said that considerable progress has been made.