German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Yerevan and Baku this week to support peace talks after Azerbijan recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic-Armenian separatists, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
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The neighbouring Caucasus countries have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Baku took control of the mountainous region in September in a lightning 24-hour offensive that ended decades of pro-Armenian separatist rule.

Baerbock will head to the Armenian capital Yerevan on Friday for talks with her counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, said German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer.

Her visit will also include a visit to the European Union’s monitoring mission in Armenia and camps hosting Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, Fischer added.
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Baerbock will subsequently travel to Baku on Saturday for talks with Azerbaijani foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

“Germany is committed to sustainable peace… building trust and reconciliation in the region are crucial,” Fischer told journalists.

“The aim is a negotiated, comprehensive peace solution so that Armenians and Azerbaijanis can live in peace and security in their national borders,” he said.

Germany supported efforts by the president of the European Council Charles Michel to host peace talks between the two sides.
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Michel had originally aimed to hold the meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by the “end of October”.

Pashinyan said last week his side were “working on the draft agreement with Azerbaijan on peace”.

I hope this process will successfully conclude in the coming months,” he said.

Azerbaijani Aliyev has said a peace treaty with Yerevan could be signed by the end of the year.
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