Azerbaijan on Sunday announced joint military exercises with Georgia and Turkey, plans which are likely to raise tensions with neighbouring Armenia a day before talks in Vienna over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The territory, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, has run its own affairs with heavy military and financial backing from Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994.
A cease-fire agreed on April 5 after an outbreak of fighting has been violated every day, say locals.
"To increase the combat capabilities and combat readiness of the Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, we deemed it worthwhile to carry out joint military exercises," Azeri Defence Minister Zakir Gasanov said on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear when the exercises, which have also taken place in past years, would be carried out.
A spokesman for the Armenian Defence Ministry did not comment on the implication of the exercises for Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.