In an interview with Armenpress, the representative of the EU in Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Victorin, spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, stressing that their efforts are in no way aimed at a competition or against other actors.
According to the ambassador, "the position of the European Union was evident before and during the war, that we fully support the promotion of the process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. The process was led by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Yes, you are right; the European Union has now taken a more active position and is playing a visible role at the highest possible level through regular consultations and visits in the form of President Michel as well as the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, Toivo Klaar. He was here again on July 13th and 14th. So we are in constant contact, and President Michel is personally involved.
These efforts are in no way intended to compete with or be directed against other actors; I have to point this out because there is a lot of speculation about this issue. We should talk about complementarity, not competition.
Three trilateral meetings in 2021, December 2022 in April, and May in Brussels aimed to support a sustainable solution. At the same time, EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar initiated high-level meetings between the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, and Advisor to the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev. These high-level mediations, and the quality of contacts, are the contribution we can make to this cause. The European Union is truly committed to continuing our efforts in these formats. Naturally, we listen to the wishes of both countries. But I repeat, this is not a competition but complementarity through other measures. We also welcome the direct contact between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which took place on July 16 in Tbilisi. The EU welcomes the direct connection established between the two foreign ministers. All these elements are coming together, and efforts are being made to find a lasting solution between the two countries."
He also spoke about the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process, noting that the European Union actively supports the normalization processes of relations. "The European Union has been active for years and supported normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey. We want to see progress because we believe it benefits people and will open up new opportunities."
