Delegates from the Azerbaijani-Armenian commission on delimitation and security convened for the third time in the Belgian capital Brussels on Thursday following recent border clashes.
"Pleased to welcome to Brussels Armenian and Azerbaijani border commissions led by DPMs Mher Grigoryan and Shahin Mustafayev for their 3rd meeting. The European Union urges the sides to take steps to improve security on the ground and to achieve progress on delimitation," Secretary General of the EU External Action Service Stefano Sannino wrote on Twitter.
The meeting of the commission comes as the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia agreed to reaffirm their commitment to a comprehensive normalization of Baku-Yerevan relations and to ensure peace, stability, security and sustainable economic development of the South Caucasus after trilateral talks in Russia's Sochi on Monday.
During the talks, the leaders agreed to refrain from the use or threat of force to discuss issues and resolve them "solely on the basis of mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991," a joint statement said.
The second meeting of the commission was held in Moscow on Sunday, once again under the chairmanship of Mustafayev and Grigoryan.
The commission between the two neighboring countries was established on May 23, a day after European Council President Charles Michel hosted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Brussels. On May 24, the commission held its first meeting on the Azerbaijan-Armenia interstate border.
The European Council last month decided to deploy up to 40 monitoring experts along the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan to observe the situation after dozens of border incidents led to conflict between the two neighbors.
The European Union in a written statement underlined that the decision is aimed at "facilitating the restoration of peace and security in the area, the building of confidence and the delimitation of the international border between the two states."
"In order to ensure a swift deployment of the EU monitoring capacity, it was decided that the monitoring experts will be temporarily deployed from the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia)," it added, saying that the monitoring capacity in Georgia would not be however affected.
The monitoring mission along the Azerbaijan-Armenia border will not last more than two months.
The decision comes after deadly clashes in September along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border that raised fears of a fresh all-out conflict. Last month, at least 286 people were killed on both sides before a U.S.-brokered truce ended the worst clashes since 2020, when simmering tensions escalated into all-out war.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces, violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.
The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.
However, the cease-fire has been broken several times since then.