The European Union's top diplomat on Tuesday condemned Azerbaijan's "disproportionate" response to alleged shooting by Armenian forces the day before.
"The Armenian shooting of the Azerbaijani soldier yesterday was deplorable, but the Azerbaijani response today seems to be disproportionate," Josep Borrell said.
Borrell was speaking at a press briefing in Brussels with Armenian foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan to mark the fifth meeting of the EU-Armenia Partnership Council, first held in 2018.
The meeting covered the "full spectrum" of EU-Armenian relations, Borrell said. "We discussed the regional situation and the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process, unhappily including the latest incident at the border."
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire on Monday and Tuesday in the latest skirmish of a long-running conflict the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
On Tuesday, the European Commission announced it was allocating €5.5 million in new humanitarian aid to support Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The EU and Armenian delegations also discussed the potential for a "dialogue" on liberalizing the visa regime between the EU and Armenia, political reforms and human rights, as well as economic and trade cooperation.
"Armenia believes that all the necessary requirements have been met and it is time to launch the Armenia-EU visa liberalisation dialogue," Mirzoyan said. "It is a choice to be made to bring our peoples closer and to provide them with tangible outcomes of our cooperation."
The EU-Armenia Partnership Council is the product of an agreement signed in 2017 to deepen cooperation on a broad array of matters such as security, arms control, human rights, the environment, energy, migration, and combatting organized crime, terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking.
In January 2023, EU member states agreed to establish a civilian mission to patrol and monitor the the region of Armenia near the Azerbaijani border, amid hostilities between the two countries.
In September, the EU condemned Azerbaijan's military campaign against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In November, Mirzoyan said Armenians "have European aspirations" in a speech welcoming the EU's decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to recognize Georgia, Armenia's neighbour, as an official candidate for EU membership.
But the EU and Armenia have taken different positions on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While the EU has provided money and weapons for the Ukrainian war effort, Armenia has abstained on UN General Assembly resolutions against the invasion.
Armenia is also a member of the Common Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military alliance.
Armenia has however sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which in September provoked the Russian government to summon the Armenian ambassador in Moscow.