YEREVAN (AFP) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday (March 31) announced an EU-mediated meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev next week in Belgium amid renewed tensions over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"I plan to meet on April 6 in Brussels with the European Council President Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President" Ilham Aliyev, Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting.
He added that he hoped "to agree on all the questions related to the start of peace talks" with Baku.
"Armenia once again declares that it is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and to start negotiations without delay," Pashinyan said.
Both Yerevan and Baku recently expressed readiness to launch negotiations on a "comprehensive peace treaty", following a flare-up in the long-contested Nagorno-Karabakh region earlier this month.
In 2020, the Caucasus neighbours fought a war over Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated enclave.
The conflict - that claimed more than 6,500 lives - ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades and Moscow deploy peacekeepers to the mountainous region.
Last week, Yerevan and Moscow accused Baku of violating a ceasefire in the Russian contingent's zone of responsibility.
They accused Azeri forces of capturing the village of Farukh in the Askeran region of Karabakh, where three Armenian soldiers were killed in a shootout.
Baku rejected the accusation, insisting the area was part of its internationally recognised territory.
On Monday, Armenia's security council accused Azerbaijan of "preparing the ground for fresh provocations and an offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh".
It urged Baku to "immediately start talks on a comprehensive peace treaty".
Baku said it was ready for peace talks, with its foreign ministry pointing out that Azerbaijan had proposed that the two countries hold such negotiations a year ago.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.
