Brussels meeting invitation to talk addressed to Yerevan, Baku -  Sergey Markedonov

ArmInfo. "I think the announced meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev, in Brussels scheduled for December 15 is,  in fact, an invitation of the conflicting parties to a talk.

I do not think that the European Union`s active mediation in the problems  involving Armenia and Azerbaijan, similar to that of Russia, is not  on the agenda," Sergey Markedonov, leading researcher at the Center  of Euro-Atlantic Security, Institute of International Studies, Moscow  Institute of International Relations, said in an interview with  ArmInfo. 

Today Armenia`s Premier Nikol Pashinyan is to take part in a  trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in Sochi, Russia. On December 15,  at the invitation of President of the European Council Charles  Michel, a Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting is to take place on the sidelines  of the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels. 

"The Pashinyan-Aliyev talks mediated by Vladimir Putin were to have  taken place in Moscow early this month. And the fact that the  Armenian premier and the Azerbaijani president will discuss the  settlement prospects in Brussels, rather than in Moscow, is by no  means the evidence of the EU`s attempts to seize the initiative from  the Kremlin, to say nothing of its announcing a new format of  negotiations on Nagorno- Karabakh. First of all, it is due to the  fact that both the leaders intended to take part in the Eastern  Partnership summit in Brussels," Markedonov said. 

The expert pointed out a greater seriousness of the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict. In this context, Markedonov stressed the EU is not playing  a great role in the peace process. According to him, Brussels has no  potential to put an end to armed border incidents between Armenia and  Azerbaijan. The same could be said about the EU`s potential for  dealing with such issues as POWs` repatriation and a peacekeeping  operation Karabakh.   

"Finally, last, but not least, the EU has no plan of unblocking  communications in the conflict zone that would be different from that  of Russia, as the first step toward a final settlement. They are not  proposing anything new in principle. In this context, I do not see  any disagreement with Russia-proposed settlement plan on the part of  Brussels," Markedonov said.