Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan left for Brussels today for a third round of “peace talks” with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The talks, brokered by European Council President Charles Michel, began on December 14, 2021. Michel will attend today’s meeting and will meet privately with Pashinyan and Aliyev prior to a joint meeting with both.

Yesterday, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan stated that no document is planned to be signed during today’s talks. To the question of one of the journalists that there is criticism that the agenda of the meeting is kept secret, Grigoryan answered.

Grigoryan, responding to a reporter’s question that some are criticizing the Armenian government for keeping the meeting’s agenda a secret, said the agenda is public knowledge.

"It’s an odd criticism because the current agenda of our discussions with Azerbaijan is well-known. They are the points presented by us and Azerbaijan for the normalization of relations or the start of peace talks, which are also published, including the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the return of prisoners, clarification of the fate of missing persons, opening of regional communications, demarcation of borders. as well as issues related to the launch of the bilateral commission on border security. This is the same agenda that was discussed during the previous meetings,” Grigoryan said.

After Pashinyan, Aliyev and Michel met in Brussels on April 6 of this year, the parties announced that an agreement had been reached, in accordance with the November 26 2021 Sochi agreement, to set up a bilateral commission to demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and to achieve stability in the region by the end of April.

Pashinyan and Aliyev also instructed their foreign ministries to start preparations for peace talks between the two countries.