Russia: Expansion of EU mission in Armenia will increase tension

PanARMENIAN.Net - The expansion of the EU civilian observation mission in Armenia will not contribute to the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement and will only increase tension in the Transcaucasus, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin has said.

“Its very presence in Armenia is a completely useless step from the point of view of promoting the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement,” TASS cited Galuzin as saying on Tuesday, December 12.

“We are convinced that expanding the EU mission will be absolutely useless and will not yield any results in terms of facilitating the Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement, the basic principles of which were developed in November 2020 by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia and which are enshrined in several trilateral joint statements.”

According to him, the European Union does not bring anything new to the South Caucasus; it “only brings additional tension and mistrust”.

The European Union launched a civilian mission in Armenia back in February, which is tasked to promote settlement of the situation with Azerbaijan. The mission’s two-year mandate envisages patrolling and reporting about the situation to Brussels to raise its awareness of the situation on the ground. According to experts in Brussels, the mission is ultimately geared to enhance the European Union’s influence in the South Caucasus amid its confrontation with Russia.