Upon the request of RFE/RL Armenian service, Catherine Ashton—the European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission—who was in Brussels on Monday to attend the European officials’ and Eastern Partnership foreign ministers’ meeting, reflected on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, specifically the chances of the EU representative’s admission to Karabakh without preconditions, and she said in particular:

“With respect to Nagorno-Karabakh, I spoke with Azerbaijan’s President and also with Armenia’s President. We discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh issue during all meetings, specifically the matter of allowing Philippe Lefort, the EU Special Representative [for the South Caucasus]—, and not all European officials— to enter Karabakh.     

We wish to help build trust among those people who live there, in a very tense and extremely unstable situation.

And I want to reiterate that these are the key issues being examined, not solely during today’s [Monday’s] meeting, but also during all meetings.”