The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met on Thursday in Vienna, ahead of a summit between the leaders of the two countries that will focus on a resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

From 4-10 April, a regional campaign, coinciding with international mine-awareness day, will highlight the heavy human and economic cost of landmines in the South Caucasus, and the need for concerted efforts to eliminate the scourge of all unexploded ordinance from the region

Azerbaijani sources say one soldier was killed. Armenian sources confirm the incident and say they have not suffered casualties. The sides give conflicting reports of the circumstances of the incidents. The deceased soldier was named as Ellez Aleddin Ellezov.

Official sources in Baku and Yerevan confirmed the long-anticipated meeting simultaneously on Wednesday morning. Commonspace.eu political editor said in a comment that expectations from the meeting should be modest but not non-existent, and what is needed most at this point is a sense of realism on both sides.

Benyamin Poghosyan argues in this op-ed for commonspace.eu that it is time for Armenia to deepen its relations with Iran and China, out of necessity rather than choice.

Last summer in Brussels, NATO leaders reconfirmed the 2008 Bucharest Summit decision that Georgia will become a member of NATO. In Tbilisi, the Secretary General praised Georgia's progress in making important reforms and encouraged it to continue these efforts.

The website of the Armenian government said that Nikol Pashinyan and Mamuka Bakhtadze "emphasised the importance of Armenian-Georgian relations in all spheres and expressed confidence that further active cooperation will promote the development and expansion of cooperation between the two neighbouring and friendly states in a number of directions".

Addressing the Council meeting in Geneva, ahead of the vote on Friday (22 March), Georgia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Lasha Darsalia, said that the recent death of Irakli Kvaratskhelia whilst in detention in Abkhazia highlighted the urgency of the matter.

Baku softened its rhetoric on Karabakh following the velvet revolution in Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan's statements however have disappointed Baku at a time when its room for manoeuvre is limited.

In the address on the occasion of the Novruz holiday the president of Azerbaijan said his country has entered a new period of reforms. "Reforms will be further deepened. There is no alternative to that. Political reforms, economic reforms, reforms in the social sphere, reforms in the judicial system"