Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the first meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in the Czech capital Prague on Thursday, state media said.
According to the Armenian news agency Armenpress on Wednesday, Pashinyan will have a quadrilateral meeting with Aliyev, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel at the EPC meeting.
"I am traveling to Prague to participate in the European Political Community summit. A quadrilateral meeting is planned there between me, the Azerbaijani President, the French President, and the President of the European Council. A meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also planned. We had announced the possibility of this meeting. If nothing changes, these will be the main meetings that essentially fit into the general discussion of the peace agenda," the news agency quoted Pashinyan as saying.
The international community has taken a leading role in mediating the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decadeslong dispute over the region of Karabakh, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the illegal occupation of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. Türkiye has always stood by Azerbaijan's just cause.
Moscow brokered a peace deal last November to end six weeks of fighting over the territory, during which more than 6,600 people were killed. The truce allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim control over large parts of Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.
The Armenian leader added that later he would head to Russia's St. Petersburg to join the informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The EPC, set up after French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal in May, will bring together leaders of the 27 European Union states and 17 other European countries – Türkiye, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Moldova, and Georgia.
More than 40 leaders are expected to attend the first meeting of the EPC.
According to an EU statement, it aims to foster political dialogue and cooperation on issues of common interest and to strengthen the security, stability, and prosperity of the European continent.
