On Thursday 1 June, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, announced that the next meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, would be held on 21 July in Brussels.
“We are working hard, and we intend to support all the positive efforts in the direction of normalisation of the relations”, he explained after a meeting with Mr Aliyev and Mr Pashinyan, which was also attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
This “very good meeting”, according to Mr Michel, was an opportunity to address all the issues discussed in Brussels on 14 May (see EUROPE 13182/16): connectivity, security and rights, border demarcation and the peace treaty.
According to Mr Macron, the aim was to “continue the process between the two countries and enable peace to be established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, while respecting the sovereignty of each country, the security of individuals and respect for minorities”.
A further meeting in this five-way format is due to be held in October, on the fringes of the European Political Community in Granada. “This means that we will do everything in our power on the EU side to help, provide assistance and make progress towards normalising relations”, warned Mr Michel. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Mathieu Bion)