EU Head Discusses Karabakh with Putin, Pashinyan

BRUSSELS — European Council President Charles Michel phoned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday hours after discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Michel said that he and Pashinyan spoke about “prospects for further work towards advancing a stable, peaceful and prosperous future for the South Caucasus.”

“The [European Union] remains committed to supporting Armenia and Azerbaijan in their dialogue,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

The Armenian government’s press office said they discussed the implementation of understandings reached during Michel’s trilateral meeting with Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Brussels on April 6.

It was Pashinyan’s second phone call with Michel in four days. Their previous conversation took place on the eve of Pashinyan’s official visit to Russia. The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict topped the agenda of his talks with Putin held on Wednesday.

Michel spoke with Putin by phone earlier on Friday. While the war in Ukraine was the main focus of the call, the two men also touched upon the Karabakh issue.

A statement released by the Kremlin said Putin briefed the EU’s top official on Russia’s efforts to “implement projects to restore economic and transport links and launch the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and negotiations on a peace treaty between the two countries.”

On Thursday, Moscow again accused the EU of trying to hijack those efforts and use the Karabakh issue in its standoff with Russia over Ukraine. It first voiced such accusations following Michel’s April 6 meeting with Pashinyan and Aliyev.