For a year, the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) has been deployed on the border with Azerbaijan, which it patrols regularly: a measure considered necessary by Yerevan – which fears a new conflict – but viewed with suspicion by Baku.
On December 14, the European Council granted EU candidate status to Georgia. An important step, celebrated the following day in the capital Tbilisi, both by the authorities and the population. However, the path towards the EU still remains ahead.
This month marked the third anniversary of the ceasefire statement that was meant to end the second Karabakh war. In retrospect, it might be more appropriately considered a continuation of the first conflict of the early 1990s given that the ceasefire then was hardly implemented too, leading to a new war 26 years later. Meanwhile, hopes that Baku and Yerevan could sign a peace agreement are fading.
Last week’s decision by the European Commission to recommend Georgia receive European Union candidate status caught many by surprise. A survey conducted by the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Research Resource Centre (CRRC) in the previous days showed that, despite widespread support for EU membership, only 33% of respondents believed it would obtain it. Unlike Ukraine and Moldova, which became candidates in June last year, Georgia had instead been required to address 12 priorities first.
Despite hopes that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would meet in Brussels towards the end of the month, the European Union’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, yesterday said that it will now not take place. Giving the reason as “time constraints,” he made the announcement while participating remotely in a conference held in Yerevan.
Following Azerbaijan’s 19 September military offensive that led to the dissolution of the breakaway but unrecognised mainly ethnic Armenian-inhabited entity of Nagorno Karabakh, there had been hopes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would meet again at the European Political Community summit in Granada, Spain. However, on the eve of the 5 October talks, Aliyev pulled out, citing the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron in the multilateral meeting that also included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel.
Following the 20 September ceasefire agreement between Baku and the de facto authorities of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), many eyes are now on Spain and the European Political Community (EPC) summit scheduled in Granada on 5 October. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev are expected to meet for talks that will also involve France, Germany, and the European Council.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met again on Saturday (15 July) for talks in Brussels facilitated by European Council President Charles Michel. The meeting was the second this year in this format and comes hot on the heels of a U.S.-facilitated talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in June as well as new developments on the strategic highway connecting Armenia with what remains of the former Soviet-era Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO).
Following last month’s meeting in Brussels between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev hosted by European Council President Charles Michel, talks between Yerevan and Baku continue to intensify. Not to be outdone by the flurry of activity from the United States and the European Union, Russian President Putin also hosted the two leaders at the sidelines of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in Moscow on 25 May.