Charles Michel renews efforts, #Politico writes

European Council President Charles Michel is renewing efforts to bring a lasting peace to the South Caucasus, as tensions rise in the war-torn region.

Speaking to POLITICO, two senior diplomats confirmed that the former Belgian prime minister had held bilateral meetings with the leaders of both Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Michel has also written to the two sides, calling on them to return to the table and "finalize the peace agreement" by making progress on outstanding issues like border delimitation.

However, frustration has been growing in Brussels after months of delays and diplomatic deadlock that has seen a long-awaited truce fail to materialize.

Despite the meetings with Michel, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev failed to find an opportunity to sit down together — with both sides pointing the finger at the other for the standoff․

“Ultimately, it’s up to both sides to stop playing games and seal the deal as President Michel has done everything in the EU’s power to reach a peace agreement,” a senior EU diplomat close to Michel said.

The previously unreported outreach comes just nine months after Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to retake the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking an exodus of its 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents. The violence came after months of talks hosted by Michel and despite warnings from the West that only a diplomatic solution could bring peace to the region․

Now, tensions are once again rising and Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense last week accused Armenia of "committing provocations" along the two countries' shared border and threatened to "take necessary response measures using all means at their disposal for the purposes of self-defense." Armenia says the claims are disinformation.

Azerbaijan, which has won at least two wars against Armenia since 2020, also criticized military support provided by EU countries like France to Yerevan in an effort to create a balance of power between the two historic rivals.