The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in the United Arab Emirates for peace talks aimed at resolving their decades-long conflict, but no significant breakthrough was achieved.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, months after the two sides finalized a draft peace agreement in March. However, a firm timeline for sealing the deal remains uncertain.
In statements released separately by both countries' foreign ministries, officials confirmed that the leaders had agreed to continue bilateral negotiations and confidence-building efforts.
"It was confirmed that bilateral negotiations represent the most effective format to address all issues concerning the normalisation process," the joint communication stated, adding that discussions on the delimitation of their shared border would also continue.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, both South Caucasus nations, have been locked in a bitter dispute since the late 1980s, when the Nagorno-Karabakh region — then predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians — broke away from Azerbaijan with Armenian backing.
After a series of conflicts, Azerbaijan recaptured the territory in a swift military operation in September 2023, leading to the displacement of nearly all of Nagorno-Karabakh's estimated 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents, most of whom fled to Armenia.
While peace talks resumed following the offensive, Thursday’s meeting in the UAE produced no major public agreements, leaving the final resolution of the conflict still out of reach. Photo by I, Ondřej Žváček, Wikimedia commons.
