The President of the European Council highlighted, on Wednesday 31 August, the progress made in the talks between the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, to ease tensions between the two countries.
“It is positive to see that quite a few steps have been taken to take forward the agreements reached during our last meeting” in May, he said in a statement after their meeting in Brussels (see EUROPE 12958/17).
The President of the European Council announced that the leaders had agreed to step up substantive work to advance the peace treaty governing inter-state relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and tasked the foreign ministers to meet within a month to work on draft texts.
They also discussed humanitarian issues, including demining, detainees and the fate of missing persons. According to the statement, Mr Michel reminded Azerbaijan of the importance of pursuing the release of Armenian prisoners.
The meeting also touched upon the state of play of all issues related to the delimitation of the border and how best to ensure a stable situation. “We agreed that the next meeting of the Border Commissions will take place in Brussels in November”, Mr Michel announced.
Finally, the leaders reviewed the status of discussions on the modalities for unblocking transport links.
More generally, the President of the European Council recalled the importance of accompanying the population on both sides and preparing 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”, he warned.
The leaders agreed to meet again by the end of November. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)