The European Union’s civilian observer mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border has already arrived in Yerevan and will be deployed promptly, the EU’s Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell announced in Luxembourg on Monday, Tass reported.
“Our team is already in Armenia. The mission will be launched promptly,” he said.
President of the European Council Charles Michel also welcomed the mission and noted that it can strengthen trust (between Armenia and Azerbaijan) and enable the EU to better support the border commissions that will soon meet in Brussels.
The Council of the European Union on Monday 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, the Council said in a press statement.
This decision follows the meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on October 6.
The Council said the decision 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 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,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said.
“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,” explained the press statement, which added that the mission will not last more than two months.
An advance team of experts dispatched by the EU late last week will make the necessary preparations for the mission.
On Monday, the advance team met with chief of staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces, Major General Edward Asryan, who said that Armenian forces were ready to cooperate and assist the mission.
The EU advance team briefed Asryan on the main goals of the mission and discussed technical and logistical issues related to the monitoring.