Azerbaijan and Armenia leaders meet at European summit

Peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan Copyright LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP or licensors
By euronews
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:Copy to clipboardCopied

Armenia agreed to “facilitate a civilian EU mission alongside the border with Azerbaijan” and Azerbaijan “agreed to cooperate with this mission", according to a statement.

ADVERTISEMENT

The first meeting of the new European Political Community (EPC) brought together some leaders that would not usually want to be seen together.

None more so than those of Azerbaijan and Armenia after a deadly outbreak of violence between the two countries recently. 

But Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev and Armenia prime minister Nikol Pashinyan sat down for talks alongside Emmanuel Macron and Charles Michel, who heads up the European Council, a body that brings together leaders of EU countries. 

Armenia agreed to “facilitate a civilian EU mission alongside the border with Azerbaijan”, according to a joint statement released early on Friday.

Azerbaijan “agreed to cooperate with this mission as far as it is concerned,” the statement added.

Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated a cease-fire to end a flare-up of fighting that killed 155 soldiers from both sides.

The ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

The inaugural meeting of the EPC brought together 44 countries in the Czech capital Prague on Thursday, including the 27 members of the European Union, as well as countries currently in the various stages of joining the bloc:  Albania, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Other participants included: Georgia, Kosovo, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, the UK, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Share this articleComments

You might also like

EU to host talks between rivals Azerbaijan and Armenia

Hundreds of tractors roll into Prague as farmers protest against EU policy

Star appeal: EU Commission Vice-President urges celebrities to mobilise young voters