Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders pledge to avoid conflict.

During a meeting in Munich, Germany, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 17, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged a swift conclusion to peace talks, according to a statement released by Scholz.

"The German Chancellor commended today's commitment by both sides to resolving differences of opinion and open issues through peaceful means and without the use of force," the statement read.

From left to right, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Munich on February 17.

No official statements have been issued by Armenia and Azerbaijan. But a commitment to avoiding conflict would be a marked shift in tone from Prime Minister Pashinyan's warning on February 15 that Azerbaijan was planning a "full-scale war."

On February 13, both sides also accused each other of firing shots on the volatile Armenia-Azerbaijan border, in a clash that Armenia claimed killed four of its soldiers.

Tensions between the two Caucasus neighbors have remained high since Azerbaijan regained control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in a lightning military offensive in September 2023.

Armenia has officially joined the court that issued the arrest warrant for President Putin.

Yerevan fears that after successfully regaining control of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan could advance into Armenian territory to create a land bridge connecting it to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan region.

Meanwhile, President Aliyev said in his inaugural address on February 14 that it was Armenia, not Azerbaijan, that had unresolved territorial claims.

Earlier, Pashinyan and Aliyev said that a peace agreement could have been signed by the end of last year, but international peace talks had not yielded a breakthrough, according to AFP.

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