On February 22, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia.
The interlocutors touched upon issues related to the Armenia-EU relations, exchanged views on the process of ratification of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
EU Special Representative informed the Foreign Minister of Armenia about his recent meetings in Baku.
Edward Nalbandian briefed his interlocutor on the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at exclusively peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
Foreign Minister of Armenia noted that during the Krakow meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, held in January at the initiative of the Co-Chairs, an agreement in principle was reached on the implementation of expansion of the monitoring capacities of the team of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.
“In this regard, Armenia and the Co-Chairs issued almost identical statements, whereas Azerbaijan did not make any reference to it either after the meeting or up until now. When the Co-Chairs were in Baku few days ago, Azerbaijan again refused to respect the agreement on the expansion of capacities,” emphasized Edward Nalbandian.
The Minister noted that the Co-Chairs, in a statement issued following the recent regional visit, once again underlined the necessity to implement the commitments undertaken at the summits. Foreign Minister highly assessed the unconditional support of the EU to this position of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
Minister Nalbandian highlighted the importance of the consistent position of the European Union in supporting the approaches of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, particularly the three principles of international law, which serve as a basis for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and equal rights and self-determination of peoples. “The obsession of Baku with the wishful thinking has reached the point when it shamelessly distorts even this principled approach of the EU,” said Minister Nalbandian.
Toivo Klaar reaffirmed the European Union’s support for the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and their proposals.
