Aliyev and Pashinian met there together with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Union chief Charles Michel on the sidelines of a European Political Community summit.
“Important issues were discussed at the meeting, and I think that this meeting will also be important for reaching the peace agreement,” Aliyev told Azerbaijani journalists after their first session held in the evening. “Contacts are continuing. We agreed to meet again after the dinner. In any case, the peace process is already gaining momentum.”
“I hope that we are gradually approaching peace,” he said. “The [Armenian and Azerbaijani] foreign ministers are due to meet again soon. We proposed that working groups of the two countries meet after that and work on preparing the text of the peace treaty within several days.”
The Armenian government did not issue any statements on the quadripartite talks as of midnight.
Pashinian said on Wednesday that he is pressing ahead with a peace deal that will commit Armenia and Azerbaijan to recognizing each other’s territorial integrity and make no reference to Nagorno-Karabakh. He said it will be up to Baku and the Karabakh Armenians to negotiate on the territory’s status.
Aliyev again ruled out any status for Karabakh and described its ethnic Armenian residents as Azerbaijani citizens.
Karabakh’s leadership has expressed serious concern over Pashinian’s readiness to accept these terms of the peace treaty. Armenia’s leading opposition groups have criticized him in even stronger terms, saying that he is planning to help Baku restore full control over Karabakh.
Pashinian’s previous talks with Aliyev were hosted by Michel in Brussels on August 31. The two leaders appeared to have to achieve a breakthrough.
Two weeks later, heavy fighting broke out at various sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, leaving at least 280 soldiers from sides dead. Yerevan accused Baku of trying to clinch far-reaching Armenian concessions through military aggression.