A regular meeting of President of AzerbaijanI lham Aliyev and Prime Minister of ArmeniaNikol Pashinyan took place in Chisinau within the framework of the summit of the European Political Community. The mediator of this meeting was the EU, represented by the head of the European Council, Charles Michel. This time, the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany took part in the negotiations. They lasted about an hour and a half.
The European Political Community was created in 2022 on the initiative of France. It is an intergovernmental organization designed “for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe.” The community includes 27 EU countries, the UK, and 19 non-EU countries in Europe and North Africa. This year 47 countries participated in the summit.
“Today’s talks were very productive and were a good preparation for the July 21 meeting in Brussels,” said the head of the European Council, thus announcing the date of the next talks.
Charles Michel also said that “the parties are working intensively to normalize relations and plan to repeat the meeting in this format [that is, with the participation of Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz] in Spain.” If these negotiations take place, it will be on October 5.
As a result of the five-party talks, no document was signed.
The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, expected that the five-party meeting in Chisinau would confirm the progress he spoke about after the May meeting of leaders in Brussels:
“A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Brussels. We have made some progress, and I hope that this meeting will be an opportunity to reaffirm the common political will to normalize relations between the two countries.”
However, after the five-party meeting, the journalists did not wait for statements from the negotiators, and the mediators also did not talk about success or progress.
The press service of the Prime Minister of Armenia at the time of publication reported:
“During the meeting, issues related to the unblocking of regional transport and economic infrastructures, demarcation and security of borders between the two countries, an agreement on the settlement of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan were considered. They also discussed the need to ensure the rights and security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, the issue of prisoners, missing persons and other humanitarian problems.”
