G7 Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan To Stay 'Fully Committed' To Peace Process.

The Group of Seven (G7) nations have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain “fully committed” to the peace process as the group’s foreign ministers issued a communique after their meeting in Capri, Italy, on April 19.

In the lengthy statement on various challenges around the world, the top diplomats of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, and the United States, as well as the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, also called on Azerbaijan “to fully comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

“We urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain fully committed to the peace process to achieve a dignified and durable peace based on the principles of non-use of force, respect for sovereignty, the inviolability of borders, and territorial integrity,” the part of the communique concerning the South Caucasus reads.

Recalling the joint statement issued by Armenia and Azerbaijan on December 7, 2023, which also included a prisoner exchange deal, the G7 foreign ministers encouraged the sides “to uphold that spirit of cooperation in their future interactions,” stressing that “further escalation would be unacceptable.”

They also called on Azerbaijan to “fully comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law” and encouraged “appropriate steps to ensure the safe, dignified, and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons wishing to come back to their homes.”

According to the statement, the G7 and its members are “ready to facilitate further constructive contacts at all levels, notably within the established negotiating frameworks provided by the EU and the USA, whose enduring efforts we commend.”

“We reiterate the importance of the commitment to the Alma Ata 1991 Declaration through which Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We encourage greater regional cooperation and the re-opening of all borders, including the border between Armenia and [Turkey],” it said.

Last November, the top diplomats from the G7 nations expressed “grave concern” regarding the humanitarian consequences of the displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh after the military operation conducted by Azerbaijan,” and called on Baku to “fully comply with its obligations.”

Russia confirmed on April 17 that its peacekeepers are leaving Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan's once-breakaway region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Azerbaijani media reports saying that Russian troops had started leaving the region were true.

Armenia has criticized Russian peacekeepers deployed to the once mostly ethnic Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh for failing to stop Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in September 2023, which ended with Baku regaining control over the region that for three decades had been under ethnic Armenians’ control.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijan Service