Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to kick-start peace talks over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory, following a Wednesday meeting of the two countries' heads of state.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia said in a statement that he and his Azeri counterpart had agreed to set up a bilateral border commission by the end of April.

The two leaders "instructed their foreign ministers to begin preparations for peace talks," Pashinyan's statement read.

No statement from Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev was immediately available.

The summit came more than two years after renewed heavy fighting over the region in 2020, which saw 250,000 people displaced.

What's the history of the conflict?

Since the 1990s, tensions have simmered between the two breakaway ex-Soviet republics over Nagorno-Karabakh — the border territory sandwiched between the two nations.

In a 1991 war, Yerevan forces occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, which is home to ethnic Armenians but was internationally recognized as belonging to Baku.

The fighting lasted four years, ending only after Russia's intervention. Some 30,000 people were killed.

Although a peace agreement was signed in 2008 to solidify a resolution, there have been flashes of violence in the region over the years.

In 2020, those tensions boiled over, resulting in heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri forces deployed ballistic missiles, cluster munitions and drones to take back the region.

In November, the conflict officially ended following a peace deal that saw Armenia relinquish control of the region and Russian peacekeepers step in.

Sustainable peace?

Wednesday's meeting was hosted by the European Council in Brussels.

It's the third in six months between the country's leaders.

With proposed talks, there's renewed hope that this agreement can be sustained despite clashes recorded as recently as November.

European Council President Charles Michel, who engineered the discussions, said he was "confident" that the talks are going in the right direction for the two parties, but also "it doesn't mean that everything is solved, of course."

sl/sms (Reuters, AFP)