“I think it’s a very positive development that President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met again under hosting of the European Council President Charles Michel,” former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Board Member of the Jamestown Foundation Matthew Bryza said, as he commented on the bilateral meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Munich.

On the recent armed incident, which left an Azerbaijani border guard wounded Bryza said, “I think that there has been a progress in the past. We have seen provocations, from those who don’t want the conflict to be resolved and in fact profit from continuing the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

He then added; “I would guess, I don’t know, but I would guess why there was this escalation and shooting from the Armenian side a few days ago, on February 12th. I was disappointed that Prime Minister Pashinyan claimed that Azerbaijan was preparing for a full-scale war, which just did not seem true and felt like it was again a part of the reaction of his political opponents who do not want peace with Azerbaijan. So now is a really good time I think for Charles Michel to bring two leaders together and it’s very positive if Pashinyan actually participates in the meeting. Because that will help to de-escalate the situation. Michel has a proven track record of helping both national leaders make progress in the negotiation toward a peace treaty and toward a board agreement between the two countries.”