EU-hosted talks between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to reduce tensions after Baku's lightning offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh will take place this month, EU chief Charles Michel told AFP on Thursday.
"The goal is to have this meeting by the end of October and we will fix the date together, with (Armenian) Prime Minister (Nikol) Pashinyan and (Azerbaijani) President (Ilham) Aliyev," Michel said on the sidelines of a summit of the 47-nation European Political Community in Spain.
Aliyev skipped the EPC summit, with his office saying it was because of what he views as France's "militarisation policy" in the Caucasus and the EU attitude towards the region.
Pashinyan attended the summit and sat down with Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the situation that has seen the vast majority of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who had been living in Nogorno-Karabakh fleeing the territory.
The three issued a joint statement stressing the "inviolability of the borders of Armenia" and the need to aid the refugees, and calling for international monitoring for any who choose to return to "their homes and their places of living".
The sit-down meeting was meant to have included Aliyev, which would have made it the first face-to-face between him and Pashniyan since the offensive last month.
"I take note that President Aliyev decided not to attend the meeting here," Michel said, adding that it was a "good meeting" with Pashinyan.
He said he feels "support" for the upcoming EU-mediated meeting between the Azerbaijan and Armenian leaders, which is to take place in Brussels.
Michel said the aim of those talks was to get "mutual recognition of the territorial integrity and sovereignty on both sides", improve connectivity allowing movement in the region, the exchange of prisoners, and demining.