EU pushing for final Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement – POLITICO

European Council President Charles Michel is renewing efforts to bring lasting peace to the South Caucasus, POLITICO reports.

Two senior diplomats confirmed to the newspaper that Michel had held bilateral meetings with the leaders of both Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Michel has reportedly written to the two sides, calling on them to return to the table and “finalize the peace agreement” by making progress on outstanding issues like border delimitation.

However, frustration has been growing in Brussels after months of delays and diplomatic deadlock that has seen a long-awaited truce fail to materialize. Despite the meetings with Michel, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev failed to find an opportunity to sit down together.

“Ultimately, it’s up to both sides to stop playing games and seal the deal as President Michel has done everything in the EU’s power to reach a peace agreement,” a senior EU diplomat close to Michel said.

The previously unreported outreach comes just nine months after Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to retake the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking an exodus of its 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents, POLITICO notes.

The violence came after months of talks hosted by Michel and despite warnings from the West that only a diplomatic solution could bring peace to the region, it adds.