Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus, referred to the deployment of a 40-person EU observation mission in Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan for 2 months, and noted that the specialists of the structure, who are currently undergoing training, will presumably be in Armenia on October 24.
“Their primary task will be to monitor the situation on the ground through road patrols in areas of interest on the Armenian side of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Based on their observations, reports will be submitted to the HQ in Brussels on a regular basis,” Klaar stated.
From the beginning, the possibility of setting up a mission on the Azerbaijani side was also considered. According to Klaar, Ilham Aliyev made it clear that Baku is ready to cooperate with the EU mission to be deployed in Armenia as far as it concerns him.
“We expect that Baku will cooperate with the mission without the physical presence of the members of the mission on the Azerbaijani side. We hope that the mission will also contribute to building trust between the parties,” Klaar said.
Klaar referred to the process of delimitation and demarcation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
“One of the main outcomes of the Prague meeting on 6 October was Armenia and Azerbaijan confirming their commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and the Alma Ata 1991 Declaration through which both recognized each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. They confirmed it would be a basis for the work of the border delimitation commissions. The EU believes that this reference to the Alma Ata 1991 Declaration speaks clearly about the need to ensure respect for borders as they existed during the latest agreed arrangements to date, i.e. the administrative borders of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. For lack of any other line, it would be important for the sides to at least agree on this as a starting point for their negotiations.
The decision about this function of the EU mission was made according to the request of the Armenian authorities. We hope that the mission will contribute to the creation of appropriate conditions for negotiations on the final delimitation of the border between the parties.”
The EU's special representative in the South Caucasus emphasized that the Macron-Michel-Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting held in Prague on October 6 brought the parties closer to the peace agreement. He expressed hope that it will be possible to avoid past mistakes and a new wave of violence. Klaar assured that the EU will continue to seriously cooperate with the parties.
