Both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were among the mostly European leaders attending the summit at Blenheim Palace in central England.
A senior aide to Aliyev, Hikmet Hajiyev, claimed that Pashinian declined British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s offer to host talks there between him and Aliyev. Hajiyev said Yerevan is “withdrawing from dialogue and the intention to promote a peace agenda.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry claimed the opposite in written comments released by its spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, an hour later.
“The Armenian side proposed a bilateral meeting between the prime minister of Armenia and the president of Azerbaijan within the framework of the European Political Community summit but the Azerbaijani side rejected the proposal,” she said. “The Armenian side’s offer is still in force.”
Badalian also said that Yerevan stands ready to “intensify high-level negotiations and reach the signing of a peace agreement within a month.”
Aliyev has repeatedly stated in recent months that the peace deal is conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which he says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The Armenian Foreign Ministry rejected this precondition last month, accusing Aliyev of torpedoing the peace process.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers reported no breakthrough towards a settlement after holding talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington last week. A U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday that Washington is pressing both sides to “make some difficult choices and tough compromises” needed for an agreement. He did not elaborate.