The Brussels meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will be hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.
Michel’s office announced on Monday that Aliyev and Pashinian will also hold follow-up talks together with Macron and Scholz on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova’s capital Chisinau slated for June 1.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, said on Thursday that there is still no “final decision” on the Chisinau summit. He said Baku wants to make sure that the four-party talks do not replace the “Brussels format.”
Michel’s spokesman, Barend Leyts, insisted, however, that Sunday’s summit in Brussels “will be flanked by a meeting in Chisinau” to be attended by Macron and Scholz.
“Following ongoing contacts with all sides, we have confirmed a political commitment to these meetings and plan to convene them,” Leyts told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The planned Armenian-Azerbaijani summits will follow marathon talks held by the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states outside Washington last week. The U.S.-mediated talks focused on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. According to the U.S. State Department, the ministers “made significant progress in addressing difficult issues.”