Azerbaijan and Armenia have held fresh peace talks mediated by the European Union as the two neighboring countries attempt once more to end decades-long hostilities linked to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

European Union Council President Charles Michel, who mediated the new round of peace talks, said on Saturday that peace and normalization of ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia could be achieved if violence and harsh rhetoric stopped.

“Real progress depends on the next steps that will need to be taken in the near future. As a matter of priority, violence, and harsh rhetoric should stop in order to provide the proper environment for peace and normalization talks,” Michel said.

The EU Council president added that the current hostile state of affairs was clearly not sustainable and in no one’s interest.

He said the exchanges between the two leaders in the negotiations were “frank, honest and substantive.”

Michel made the remarks after holding trilateral talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

In the meeting, they discussed possible steps to help bring the situation back to normal in the Nagorno-Krabakh region.

“I encouraged them to take courageous steps to ensure decisive and irreversible progress on a normalization track,” he said.

Russia, in the meantime, offered to host the two countries’ foreign ministers and suggested a future peace treaty could be signed in Moscow.

In the past, Moscow has played a leading role in establishing peace between the two countries.

In this regard, Pashinyan and Aliyev have held several meetings, separately arranged by Russia and the European Union, as well as the United States, as they seek to resolve their dispute.

The Nagorno-Krabakh region has been at the center of a dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia for more than three decades.

Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the two neighboring countries have fought two wars, in 1994 and 2020, over the mountainous territory.

In the second Karabakh war, more than 6,500 people died on both sides in the six-week conflict.

Nagorno-Krabakh which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan has an Armenian-majority population that is resisting the Baku government’s rule over the region.

However, Pashinyan has reportedly expressed Yerevan’s readiness to accept the internationally-accepted matter and recognize Nagorno-Krabakh as part of Azerbaijan.