EU urged Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to prepare their peoples for a sustainable peace

The European Union called on Azerbaijani and Armenian leaderships to take their peoples along and prepare them for a long-term sustainable peace.

“Public messaging is critical in this regard – in a sensitive situation like this every word spoken in public is obviously listened to by the other side and weighed,” Charles Michel, the president of the European Council said. 

Michel reaffirmed EU’s readiness to further step up its support towards a peace between the two countries, in a press statement released after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest meeting on Wednesday. 

Pashinyan and Aliyev held their fourth EU-mediated meeting in Belgian capital Brussels, agreeing for a peace treaty to be drafted under the leadership of their foreign ministers, over Nagorno-Karabakh war. 

In September 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over the disputed area.

The six weeks of clashes resulted with a Russia brokered truce agreement and Armenia gave back territories in the region as part of the deal. Ankara sided with Baku in the conflict, providing military support to Azerbaijan.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani top diplomats will meet for negotiations within a month, according to the agreement reached by Pashinyan and Aliyev in Brussels. 

“Our exchanges were open and productive - and I would like to thank both leaders for that,” Michel said. 

The EU will also continue to push for the advancement of economic development for the benefit of both countries and their populations, Michel said.

The next trilateral meeting will be held by the end of November, he added.

The issues discussed in the meeting hosted by Michel, also included the release of prisoners of war, clarifying the cases of missing troops, border disputes, lifting restrictions on travel and transport and the normalization of relations between the two countries.