Azerbaijan proposes bringing forward Armenia talks to October because of tension

A man stands next to a building damaged by shelling in Jermuk

(Reuters) - Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said late on Sunday that it proposed bringing forward scheduled talks with Armenia to October from November to address tensions on their border.

On Sunday, the foreign ministers from Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Geneva, after the worst fighting between the two ex-Soviet countries since 2020 killed more than 200 in late September.

"During the meeting, Azerbaijan proposed to hold the next meeting of the bilateral commission on delimitation in October, not in November, as previously agreed, taking into account the tension on the non-delimited border," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The fighting is linked to decades-old hostilities over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.

(Reporting in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Robert Birsel)