The ambassadors of the countries that joined the "Resilient Syunik Team Europe" initiative of the European Union visited Syunik today to participate in the event dedicated to the Europe Day, where they announced about doubling of the budget of the projects implemented in the Syunik province within the framework of the initiative. NEWS.am reporter Gayane Aleksanyan asked a few questions to Anne Louyot, France's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia.

The European Union is implementing this program in Syunik. Why is it important for the EU to do this kind of programs, especially in Syunik?

It is very important. As you are aware of, it is one of the flagships of European Investment Plan in Armenia. And why is it one of the main priorities of our action in Armenia? Because we have to promote the development of Syunik as part of the security of this region, that is to say, as part of the security of Armenia, because we know the role played by Syunik in the global security of Armenia.

The second reason we want to develop, of course, the economy of Armenia, and Syunik is a very important part from the point of view of communication, also from the point of view of other main economic areas, such as agriculture, tourism, entrepreneurship as well.

Especially after they lost some of their territories. Azerbaijan occupied some territories in Syunik region, and people lost agricultural lands and now they are facing real problem in agriculture.

Yes. That is why it is very important to develop agriculture in Syunik. And as a member of Team Europe Initiative France is also focusing on agriculture and has already several projects and aims at developing other projects in the field of agriculture in order to support the people working in agriculture.

Here, we are in a region where people wake up every day with a fear to be attacked by the Azerbaijani troops. The last clash in this region happened in April despite the presence of the European Union monitoring mission. What do you think, how can people here be sure that their lives will be more secure with the presence of the EU Monitoring Mission.

Well, I am here to speak about the Team Europe Initiative in Syunik, but I can answer this question from the European point of view. The European Union has taken a very important decision to deploy civilian mission of observers in Armenia, and some of them, of course, as you are aware of, are in Syunik: there is a basis of EU MA in Goris. And we think that the EU MA is playing a key role in the security of the border, not from the military point of view, of course, because they are civilian observers and their aim is mainly to build confidence at the border and to observe the situation at the border and to report to Brussels, obviously, and to our headquarters, so, each member state, in order for the EU to be able to play an important role in peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. So, the European Union is definitely supporting the peace process and the possibility for Armenia to negotiate with Azerbaijan.  

But Azerbaijan keeps violating the ceasefire. Yesterday they fired even at the ambulance carrying a wounded soldier. What kind of peace can be reached in this kind of situation when Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire frequently?

We regret all these tensions because we think that these tensions, of course, are not in favor of peace process, but we are still pushing, we are still working, we are still promoting the peace process between both countries. And as you know there was a meeting in Brussels, and there will be a new meeting with the presence of the European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Chișinău. And we are still working and supporting the peace process.