President of the EU Council Charles Michel has welcomed the rapid deployment of EU monitoring capacity in Armenia the border with Azerbaijan.
According to Michel, the mission will help build confidence and allow EU to better support border commissions which will convene shortly in Brussels.
The EU Council today decided to deploy up to 40 EU monitoring experts along the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan with the objective of monitoring, analyzing and reporting on the situation in the region. This decision follows the quadrilateral meeting between President Aliyev, Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Macron and President Michel on 6 October, and is aimed at facilitating the restoration of peace and security in the area, the building of confidence and the delimitation of the international border between the two states.
“The EU’s deployment of up to 40 EU monitoring experts along Armenia’s international border with Azerbaijan will aim to build confidence to the unstable a situation that is putting lives at risk and jeopardizes the conflict resolution process. This is another proof of the EU’s full commitment to contributing to the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable peace in the South Caucasus,” said Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
In order to ensure a swift deployment of the EU monitoring capacity, it was decided that the monitoring experts will be temporarily deployed from the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia). The EUMM is taking operational steps so that its monitoring capacity in Georgia is not impacted.
The monitoring mission will have a temporary nature and in principle will not last more than two months.
