Neither leader made public statements right after the talks held on the sidelines of an annual international security conference in the southern German city.
Scholz, who also held separate meetings with Aliyev and Pashinian earlier in the day, tweeted that “both sides agreed to resolve open issues without new violence.” He said he reaffirmed Germany’s and the European Union’s readiness to make more peace efforts.
An Armenian government statement on the trilateral meeting said Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to “continue the work on a peace treaty” between their countries. It announced no other understandings reached by them.
The Azerbaijani news agency APA reported that Scholz left the meeting room about an hour after the start of the negotiations and they continued in a bilateral format. It said Aliyev and Pashinian instructed their foreign ministers, who were also present at the meeting, to “continue negotiations” on the peace treaty and the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Armenian side did not immediately issue a statement on the bilateral discussions.
Azerbaijan had for months refused to hold further Western-mediated talks with Armenia, accusing the European Union and the United States of pro-Armenian bias and seeking direct contacts between the two conflicting sides.
“We don’t need mediators to normalize relations with Yerevan,” Aliyev said on Wednesday, adding that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict “should be removed from the international agenda.”
By contrast, Yerevan insisted on continued Western mediation which has also been strongly criticized by Russia. It accused Baku of walking away from understandings reached by Aliyev and Pashinian during their earlier encounters organized by the EU.
On Thursday, Pashinian claimed that the Azerbaijani leadership is pursuing a “policy of military coercion” in an effort to clinch more Armenian concessions. He said it may be planning to launch a “full-scale war against Armenia.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry dismissed the claim.