Armenia and Azerbaijan Discuss Potential Peace Agreement: POLITICO

A long-awaited agreement that could establish peace in the South Caucasus after decades of conflict is nearing completion, confirmed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to POLITICO.

During a press conference on Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that his government has made an official proposal to Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty, noting that significant progress has been made in key issues during recent bilateral negotiations.

"In the latest draft of the peace treaty, we have 17 articles. Of these, 13, including the preamble, are fully agreed upon," Pashinyan stated, as reported by the outlet. "We propose the following: take all agreed articles and formulations and sign them as a peace treaty."

The announcement came a day after both sides declared that an agreement had been signed regarding a joint boundary commission to demarcate and delimit their common border.

The two neighboring countries have engaged in a number of conflicts in recent years, both over Nagorno-Karabakh and along Armenia's internationally recognized borders. Following the 2022 war, an EU monitoring mission was deployed in Armenia to observe the tense situation at the borders, and the country has sought to remove Russian border guards stationed there since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In an interview with POLITICO, Hikmet Hajiyev, head of Azerbaijan's foreign policy, confirmed that progress has been made in the bilateral negotiations, adding that the agreement on the boundary commission "should be considered sufficient for the withdrawal of the EU contingent."

The country has consistently opposed Brussels' mission, arguing that it increases the risk of conflicts.