YEREVAN. – Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received on Thursday the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar.

Minister Nalbandian noted that on the eve he had a meeting with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and stressed the importance of a long and active dialogue with the Union.

The interlocutors touched upon the issues of Armenia’s relations with the EU and exchanged views on the process of ratification of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

The EU Special Representative informed the Armenian Minister about the recent meetings in Baku.

Edward Nalbandian briefed the EU official on the joint efforts of Armenia and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to find an exclusively peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict.

He recalled that during the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, held on the initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in January in Krakow, a principled agreement was reached to expand the office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
“In connection with the agreement, Armenia and the co-chairs issued an almost identical statements, while Azerbaijan never referred to this agreement after the meeting. During the visit of the co-chairs to Baku, Azerbaijan again ignored this agreement,” Nalbandian emphasized.

He outlined the importance of the consistent position of the EU in promoting the approaches of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict on the basis of the principles of international law: non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination.

“Baku's obsession with wishful thinking has reached the point when they do not hesitate to distort the principled approaches of the EU,” the minister said.