Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to set up the commission before the end of April at their last meeting held in Brussels a month ago. They said it will also be tasked with easing tensions along the long and heavily militarized border.
The foreign ministers of the two states discussed the issue in two phone calls in the following weeks.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on April 25 that the two sides will soon hold a “meeting regarding the commission.” Aliyev announced, meanwhile, that he has already appointed Azerbaijani members of the body.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, said Yerevan and Baku are continuing their “intensive discussions” on the issue.
“We have not yet found final answers to questions regarding the working group and some other issues,” he said without elaborating.
Grigorian again met with Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, in Brussels on Monday. He said they also discussed preparations for separate negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
In March, Baku presented the Armenian side with five elements which it wants to be at the heart of the treaty. They include a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. Yerevan said they are acceptable to it in principle, fuelling more Armenian opposition allegations that Pashinian is ready to help Azerbaijan regain full control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Grigorian told reporters that Armenia has also presented its own proposals regarding the peace treaty but declined to reveal them. Baku signaled its readiness to discuss them at the upcoming negotiations, he said.
