BRUSSELS, December 15. /TASS/. The European Union will provide a mission of experts to help delimitate the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, European Council President Charles Michel said in a statement released on Wednesday after trilateral talks with the leaders of the two states.
"The EU will make available an expert mission/consultative group to support the border delimitation and demarcation issues by providing technical assistance to both countries," the statement says.
The document says that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilkham Aliyev, "agreed that in the context of the planned launch of negotiations on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, further tangible steps will need to be taken to reduce tensions on the ground to ensure a conducive atmosphere for the talks."
"President Michel called on both Yerevan and Baku to actively engage in good faith and to work towards de-escalation. He stressed that ensuring the appropriate distancing of forces is an essential element of incident prevention," it says.
Intense clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia flared up on September 27, 2020, in Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in the conflict zone, which facilitated a complete cessation of hostilities. According to the deal, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides maintained the positions that they had held. In addition, several regions came under Baku’s control and Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region.
On January 11, during a meeting in Moscow, the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan made a decision to create a working group consisting of the deputy prime ministers from the three countries that would focus on establishing transportation and economic links in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On November 26, the trilateral negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan marking the first anniversary of the signing of a joint statement on a complete ceasefire and all military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 9, 2020, took place in Sochi. They became the first face-to-face trilateral contract among the countries’ leaders since January this year and lasted for about three hours. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the talks as productive and constructive and hoped for compliance with the agreements.