Azerbaijan-Armenia Commission for Border Delimitation and Security to meet

The Azerbaijan and Armenia Commission for Border Delimitation and Security will meet today in Moscow.

This is the first meeting since the countries established the Commission in Brussels last month. The bilateral examined Azerbaijan’s five-point plan, calling on each side to recognize the other’s territorial integrity. Since then, Armenia has responded with their own six point plan, which Armenia’s National Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan has suggested focuses on the rights of ethnic Armenians in contested region Nagorno-Karabakh.

Violence has ticked up recently in the region. In March, Azerbaijani forces shelled a village, and a critical gas pipeline supplying Karabakh has been damaged, with local authorities blaming Baku. Furthermore, thousands of protesters have besieged Yerevan, calling for the country’s prime minister to step down for seeking a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

Expect Armenia’s six-point response to be a key talking point in today’s meeting, although the sides are unlikely to reach an agreement. Save the Brussels meeting, Russia has led all diplomatic mediation between the two countries. As Moscow is unlikely to willingly cede power over negotiations that include a former Soviet country, expect Moscow to make efforts to involve itself in the mediation process in the near future.