Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels for talks aimed at resolving their decades-long conflict for the control of Armenian-populated Karabakh, the foreign ministry in Baku said.
European Council President Charles Michel, who mediated the discussions, said the exchanges were "frank, honest and substantive".
"I encouraged them to take courageous steps to ensure decisive and irreversible progress on a normalisation track," he added.
"As a matter of priority, violence and harsh rhetoric should stop in order to provide a proper environment for peace."
The Armenian foreign ministry said negotiations focused on "the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh" among other issues.
Both sides "agreed to step up work on addressing the existing issues" as the peace process goes forward, the ministry added.
Michel said he intended to organise a fresh meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan in Brussels and another in Spain in October involving German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The talks come amid renewed tensions after Azerbaijan closed the Lachin corridor, the sole land link between Karabakh and Armenia.
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