Armenian PM agrees to hold Moscow peace talks with Azeri leader and Putin - Ifax

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday he had agreed to hold peace talks in Moscow on May 25 with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, with Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating, the Interfax news agency reported.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday he had agreed to hold peace talks in Moscow on May 25 with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, with Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating, the Interfax news agency reported. "We received a proposal from the Russian side to hold a trilateral meeting mediated by the Russian president on May 25. We accepted this proposal," Pashinyan was cited as telling a government meeting.

Russia brokered a truce to halt a six-week conflict between the two countries in 2020, but the agreement has not led to lasting peace, tensions remain high, and flare-ups in violence are common. Moscow has a peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

The United States and the European Union have also undertaken efforts to encourage both sides to agree to a lasting settlement.