- FROM AFP NEWS
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday urged arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume internationally mediated peace talks, weeks after Baku recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists.
The Caucasus neighbours have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region, which Baku reclaimed in a lightning offensive in September.
Western-mediated negotiations to broker a wider comprehensive peace agreement between the two sides have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.
On a visit to Armenia on Friday, Baerbock said "the moderation efforts by the president of the European Council Charles Michel are a bridge and the fastest way to peace".
"That is why it is so important that a new round of negotiations takes place," she said, adding that "Germany stands by your side as an honest broker between Armenia and Azerbaijan".
At a press conference in Yerevan alongside her Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Baerbock said: the "territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan … is the basis for any negotiations for peace."
"We want to accompany you on this path to a good future in the South Caucasus," she said, urging both sides to "use this window for a negotiated peace."
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have held several rounds of talks under EU mediation and both leaders have said a peace treaty could be signed in the coming months.
But last month, Aliyev refused to attend a round of peace talks with Pashinyan in Spain over what he said was France's "biased position".
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been scheduled to join Michel as mediators at those talks.
On Friday, Baerbock also pledged an additional 9.3 million euros in aid to help Armenia deal with a refugee crisis sparked by the latest hostilities in Karabakh.
Almost the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh — more than 100,000 people — fled to Armenia after Azerbaijani troops recaptured the mountainous enclave.
Baerbock will travel to Baku on Saturday for talks with Azerbaijani foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
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https://www.barrons.com/news/german-fm-urges-armenia-azerbaijan-to-revive-peace-talks-79051d09
