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The meetings allowed us to follow up on the substantive discussions that the two leaders held with President Charles Michel in Brussels in December, as well as on their meeting with President Emmanuel Macron following the Eastern Partnership Summit. This is what EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar stated in the response to the request of NEWS.am, summarizing the results of EU delegation’s last visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On January 20-21, 2022 Toivo Klaar visited both Baku and Yerevan together with Adviser to the French President Isabelle Dumont, as well as Magdalena Grono, Adviser to President of the European Council Charles Michel and Brice Roquefeuil, Ambassador for the Eastern Partnership in the French Foreign Ministry. Klaar stressed that the format of this visit was quite unique and allowed for substantive discussions between their delegation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, among others.

“The aim was to deepen our engagement on a variety of topics and to identify options for further EU engagement with the sides, including on such issues as de-escalation of tensions and ways to avoid further clashes on the ground, border delimitation, addressing humanitarian issues, including the release of detainees, the fate of missing persons and demining efforts, and the importance of restoring communications infrastructure between Armenia and Azerbaijan, while fully respecting the sovereignty of all countries.

On all these issues, President Michel has been closely involved for some time already and several agreements have already been reached, including the established - and well-appreciated - direct communication link between the Ministers of Defence of both countries and the EU-facilitated handover of 10 Armenian detainees from Baku to Yerevan on December 19, 2021.

In addition, we continued our discussions with the leaderships about President Michel’s offers for additional support for demining efforts, including by providing expert advice, as well as for EU political and practical support to reduce tensions on the border and for delimitation and demarcation discussions. On all these issues, I can say that we have had positive talks in both Baku and Yerevan. We will be continuing our strong engagement with our partners Armenia and Azerbaijan in all these areas,” Klaar informed.

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