As Azerbaijan gained the upper hand in the relations, Armenia announced a revival of talks over their shared border on Thursday.
The normalization negotiations between the archfoes stalled after Baku reclaimed the long-disputed Karabakh region from Armenian separatists.
Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a decadeslong conflict for control of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, which Baku recaptured in a lightning offensive in September. Internationally mediated peace talks between the Caucasus neighbors have failed to produce a breakthrough, but both countries' leaders have said that a comprehensive peace deal could be signed by the end of the year. The peace process stalled, however, after Azerbaijan recently refused meetings under the mediation of the European Union and the United States, accusing them of favoring Armenia.
On Thursday, Armenian and Azerbaijani "commissions on border delimitation, chaired by Armenian Vice Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev, began a fifth round of talks," Grigoryan's spokesperson Ani Babayan told Agence Freance-Presse (AFP). The meeting "is taking place at the Ijevan-Gazakh sector of the state border," she added. Last week, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said Baku "stands prepared for direct negotiations with Armenia on a bilateral basis to finalize the peace agreement as soon as possible."
In a one-day military operation on Sept. 19, Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh from Armenian separatists who had controlled the mountainous enclave for three decades.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have met on several occasions for talks under the mediation of the EU. But last month, Aliyev refused to attend negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, citing French bias. Washington had also organized several meetings between the countries' foreign ministries. Azerbaijan, however, refused further talks due to what it says is Washington's "biased" position.
The traditional regional power broker Russia bogged down in its Ukraine war, has seen its influence wane in the Caucasus.
