Azerbaijani troops on Friday killed one Armenian soldier in border clashes between the arch foes, Yerevan said, on the second day of fighting which threatens to derail EU-led weekend peace talks.

The Caucasus neighbours are locked in a decades-long territorial dispute over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which they have fought two wars.

On Thursday, an Azerbaijani serviceman was killed and four Armenian troops were wounded during border clashes.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are scheduled to meet Sunday in Brussels for talks led by European Council President Charles Michel.

The rival leaders have also agreed to jointly meet the leaders of France and Germany on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova on June 1, according to the EU.

The EU-led diplomacy comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers to Washington for talks in early May.

The West has stepped up mediation as the influence of Russia, historically the major powerbroker between the former Soviet republics, has waned since its invasion of Ukraine.

Roger Barake, with AFP

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