On 18 December, the European Union expressed its readiness to contribute to international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the meetings with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministers, Ara Ayvazyan and Jeyhun Bayramov respectively.

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell stated that he tried to organise a trilateral meeting with Ayvazyan and Bayramov, but that it was not possible. “The EU stands ready to assume a role in supporting and shaping a durable settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in close complementarity with the Minsk Group co-chairs. We are ready to use our peace-building and reconstruction tools to support this,” he was quoted saying. He also stressed that the ceasefire agreement that Russia brokered in November has certainly prevented further loss of life but expressed concern over the ceasefire violation in the Hadrut region (Caucasus Watch reported).

The EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Oliver Varhelyi said that in regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the EU plans to provide 10 million euros  in additional humanitarian aid to victims of the war. Varhelyi also voiced his readiness to “work towards more comprehensive conflict transformation and longer-term socio-economic development.”

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) held its meeting of the Heads of States with the absence of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan due to the death of his father. The CIS leaders discussed the current state and prospects for the development of cooperation within the organisation in the political, trade, economic, social and cultural fields. In addition, issues of collaboration in the fight against the spread of Covid-19 were also discussed, as well as exchange views on topical international and regional issues. The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the war and the current developments unfolding in Karabakh. “For Azerbaijan, it was a Patriotic, liberation war, for Armenia it was an invasion, occupation war,” he stressed. Aliyev described the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh as “very successful” and in constant touch with the relevant organisations of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani leader stressed that only one incident had been recorded since the signing of the statement on a ceasefire. According to Aliyev, that incident was provoked by “groups of so-called militias uncontrolled by the Armenian authorities” and was settled within one day.

The President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his hopes that with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict there would be deeper cooperation within the CIS. “In fact, the hotbed of conflict in the post-Soviet space, which has poisoned political cooperation in the Commonwealth throughout its existence, has been eliminated. In this difficult time, cooperation between the CIS countries is of particular importance. Yes, we differ from each other in terms of economic potential and historical outlook. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has shown that we differ from each other in our geopolitical outlook. But the most important thing is that the peoples of our countries want to live in peace and be friends with each other. This imposes a great responsibility on the heads of the CIS states. Our main task is to find ways to cooperate between our peoples,” he stated.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Director of Russia's Security Service Alexander Bortnikov arrived in Yerevan at the request of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to discuss the issues of delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani borders. A day later, Bortnikov went to Azerbaijan where he met with Aliyev. The current situation in the region, settlement of the conflict and the implementation of the provisions of the trilateral statement were discussed at the meeting, and the situation was described as stable. The issues of security cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia were also discussed.

Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar stated that the joint Turkish-Russian monitoring centre to monitor the ceasefire in Karabakh after the war would be built in Agdam. He also noted that the existence of Turkish Army in the region was an issue between Turkey and Azerbaijan. “The Russians claim that if the Turkish military is where there are Armenians, problems will arise. We will discuss this issue with Azerbaijan,” he added.