Work to delimit the borders will begin by the end of April, PM Nikol Pashinyan says
An Armenian soldier at a checkpoint in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, 2020. © Karen Minasyan/AFP
Armenia has said that it reached an agreement with Azerbaijan to set up a commission on border delimitation by the end of April. The countries fought a bloody war over the control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, with the latest military escalation happening this March.
Yerevan’s statement came after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels on Wednesday.
The border commission will be “authorized to deal with security and stability issues along the border,” Pashinyan’s office said in a statement. It added that the sides agreed to start preparations for definitive peace talks.
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Michel released a statement confirming the plans for the joint commission. He welcomed “the restoration of railway lines, while encouraging Armenia and Azerbaijan to also find effective solutions for the restoration of road links.”
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, has not commented on the outcome of the meeting. But Aliyev proposed to launch peace talks during his phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, according to the president’s press service.
Yerevan and Baku fought a 44-day-long war in 2020, during which Azerbaijan captured parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory controlled by Armenians since the early 1990s. A Moscow-brokered ceasefire saw Russian peacekeepers deployed in the area.
The situation on the ground has remained tense, however, with both sides accusing each other of hostilities.
