Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels on December 15 by invitation of the Council of Europe’s President Charles Michel.
The trilateral meeting between Ilham Aliyev, Nikol Pashinyan and Charles Michel was an initiative of the Council of Europe.
Michel stressed the importance of restoring infrastructure communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and more broadly in the South Caucasus, with full respect for the sovereignty of all countries. He stated that the Council of Europe is committed to build a close cooperation with Armenia and Azerbaijan in resolving the existing conflicts and creating an atmosphere of cooperation and trust in order to establish a comprehensive peace agreement.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian representatives agreed upon working together for solving humanitarian issues and strengthening the local economy in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. It was decided to start the restoration of railway lines on the basis of mutual agreements on border and customs control with support from the Council of Europe.
The meeting was well-received by political experts, once it built on topics discussed in Sochi but also allowed more space for Europe to act as an intermediary between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Earlier in November, President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pachinyan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. In the meeting, the countries discussed the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh and made a commitment to work together on the demarcation and delimitation of borders in a near future.
