EU sees positive signal for progress in Karabakh settlement

PanARMENIAN.Net - Exchanges in recent months between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as well as meetings of the Foreign Ministers under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, most recently in Paris on 16 January 2019, send a positive signal for progress in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, said Maja Kocijancic, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.

"The European Union is looking forward to the full implementation of their outcomes, including the recent Foreign Ministers’ agreement on the need to take concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace, as well as the consideration of steps aimed at reinvigorating the negotiations," Kocijancic said in a statement.

"The European Union continues to fully support the mediation efforts and proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, including through the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, as well as through civil society confidence-building measures across the conflict divide. All would stand to benefit from lasting peace, which would help to enable the South Caucasus region to fulfil its potential."

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a statement following a meeting with Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign policy chiefs, revealing that the Ministers have agreed upon the necessity of taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace. They also said that a possible summit between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia would give a strong impulse to the dynamic of negotiations.