Azerbaijan has complained to NATO about the European Union’s monitoring mission, which is deployed along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
“The deployment of the EU mission on the territory of Armenia on the conditional border leads to tension of the situation in the South Caucasus,” said Azerbaijan’s First Deputy Defense Minister of Defense and Army Chief of Staff, Karim Valiyev, when he met with the Director General of NATO’s International Military Staff, Janusz Adamczak, who is visiting Azerbaijan.
Valiyev, according to a report by the Azerbaijani APA news agency, told the visiting NATIO official that the EU mission in Armenia, as well “arming Armenia by some extra-regional forces, specifically France, hinder the normalization of relations and the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia and escalate the situation in the South Caucasus.”
Baku—and Moscow—have vehemently opposed the EU mission in Armenia, with both accusing France, which is providing military assistance to Armenia, of destabilizing the region and “arming” Armenia.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan affirmed his commitment to the “regional peace agenda” when he met with President Biden’s Senior International Climate Policy Advisor, John Podesta, in Baku on Wednesday.
Rights organizations and advocated have voiced concerns that Aliyev is going to use the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, known as COP29, which will be held in Baku next month, to portray his country as a paragon of peace and human rights, despite Baku’s abhorrent record on environmental and rights violations.
