EU countries agree on civil mission to be sent to Armenian side of border with Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. Foreign ministers of 27 EU countries agreed on sending a civil mission to the Armenian side of border with Azerbaijan, Trend reports on October 17 via the statement of the European Council. According to the statement, the Council has 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. This 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. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell noted that 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. The monitoring mission will have a temporary nature and in principle will not last more than two months, added the statement. The mission deployment issue was reflected in the statement adopted on October 7 following the quadrilateral meeting of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev with French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Prague. The EU and France wanted to create a border monitoring mission which would also operate on the territory of Azerbaijan and use it to enter the region. Azerbaijan objected to this, and after a firm position, it was decided that the mission will operate only on the territory of Armenia. Azerbaijan will cooperate with the mission in accordance with its interests.