ArmInfo. The European Union supports a sustainable and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, so the efforts towards the normalization of relations between the two countries need to continue fasterú European Commission's lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy Peter Stano stated.
Thus, regarding the latest border incident between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which resulted in the death of 4 Armenian servicemen, Peter Stano emphasized that the EU condemns every loss of life wherever it happens under whatever circumstances this happens. "But this repeated, unfortunately repeated incident only underlined yet again the need for, of course, distancing the forces and putting much more efforts into measures and activities that prevent such incidents from occurring because they don't bring anything positive. They are just contributing to the atmosphere of tension, distrust and adding one more tragedy upon another tragedy. So, this illustrates really the urgent need for the distancing of the forces - this is something the EU has been advocating for a very long time. We are supporting a sustainable and lasting peace, so the efforts in terms of normalization between Armenia and Azerbaijan need to continue faster and this reminds us how important it is to continue this process because without the normalization there is a risk that such incidents will be repeated again and again and again. And as I said, this only worsens the overall atmosphere. So, it's really important to show restraint on the one hand, and distance the forces on the other hand, and then continuing the overall political efforts to advance the normalization talks. ," Stano said in an interview with Armenpress.
In order to clarify what actions the EU will take, considering that aggression is already taking place on the sovereign territory of Armenia, the European official first of all drew attention to the fact that the European Union is not an actor, a party involved in this problem.
" This is in essence a bilateral problem and a problem of course of international law and the respect for international law. We always say that territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries need to be respected, and whenever there are disputes about that, they need to be solved around the negotiating table. So, we, as a third party and not direct party participant or direct side involved in this issue, we can only work with partners and encourage them to follow exactly these steps. That means solving all open issues around the negotiating table and that's why we got involved in the support of the normalization process with President [of the European Council Charles] Michel, with our Special Representative Toivo Klaar, who is conducting a lot of activities and supporting the efforts of President Michel and High Representative [of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep] Borrell, so that we really encourage both sides to continue this process, solve together and solve all the issues, not through shooting, but through discussing at the negotiating table," Stano noted.
When asked why the EU is not taking practical steps to hold Azerbaijan accountable, against the backdrop of statements of High Representative Borrell assuring that relations between the European Union and Armenia are currently at the highest level, Mr. Stano confirmed these statement of the EU chief diplomat and added that Brussels is determined to continue working to deepen and strengthen them. "High Representative Borrell really said that relations between EU and Armenia are at their best point, at the highest level currently, and we are determined to continue working on deepening and strengthening them. That's why we agreed two weeks ago in Brussels to launch work on the new partnership agreement or new partnership agenda with Armenia to explore the whole potential of our cooperation even more than what we are doing for Armenia already now. There is a very multifaceted support to Armenia with practical issues on the side of economy, social development through the economic investment plan, through humanitarian assistance, for example, for people who had to flee from Nagorno Karabakh, we are working on strengthening the resilience of Armenia, the resilience of its economy, through the EIP, the Economic Investment Plan, but also through other means, and we already said last year that we are going also to explore the possibilities to strengthen the defence capabilities of Armenia, of course through non-lethal means and non-lethal instruments. But this is something that is on the table." he assured.
At the same time, Stano noted: " We are also including or we will be including the area of security and defence into our discussions and cooperation in this new partnership agenda, so there are practical steps in order to help Armenia to be stronger, to be more resilient to whatever problems there are in terms of threats to its safety and at the same time we will continue to engage also with Azerbaijan, trying to convey very strongly the message that unilateral actions like threat of force, threat of using force and violations of international law are not the way to move forward because it will carry consequences, but again, we are at a stage of our relations with Azerbaijan, that instead of threats, we still prefer engagement. But if the situation continues to develop in a negative direction, then the Member States will need to see and decide or review the situation and see what other tools we could use. But for us right now, because we are a political community that believes in peaceful resolution of problems, for us right now, the best means to solve the issue also between Armenia and Azerbaijan is to continue engaging with both sides, of course."
According to him, EU sanctions as a whole are not a magical solution to all problems and they are applied in combination with other EU tools.
"I should maybe clarify one thing very, very clearly. The EU sanctions in general, they are not a magic solution to all the problems. Sanctions are always used in connection with other tools we are using, so they are not the instrument. They are one of the instruments. We are using and usually we start using sanctions when all the other instruments have failed to bring the desired objectives, " the EU official said.
At the same time, he added that the EU believes that no one will attack Armenia, that all threats will be eliminated during engagement.
"Well, we still believe that no one will attack Armenia, that all the threats or all the challenges Armenia is perceiving right now will be removed exactly in the process of engagement. But the European Union was also very clear, should there be any kind of violation of Armenian territorial integrity and sovereignty, then we would react, but again, we cannot really focus only on sanctions as the only magic wand that solves everything, including using them as a potential. Because if you look at the history or track record of the European Union in using sanctions, then it's usually the last resort that we are making use of when it comes to the current issue or when it comes to sanctions in general. One cannot forget the principle of adopting sanctions, this is an instrument in the hands of the Member States who first need to sit together and decide - yes, we are going to use it and this decision needs to be made by unanimity of all 27. So, unless you have all 27 Member States on board, you cannot talk about the sanctions. But again, this is not a magic solution. It's a supporting measure in combination with other instruments the European Union has always preference for to use them to solve the issues and remove threats or challenges, " the EU representative belives.
When asked to comment on the accusations voiced against the EU observation mission in Armenia by Azerbaijan, Stano stressed that 'allegations and continued baseless, unjustified criticism' from Azerbaijan are 'totally baseless and really regrettable'.
"The European Union decided to launch its mission in Armenia based on the request from Armenia, and we deployed this mission on the territory of Armenia, so this mission is something between the EU and Armenia and the baseless allegations and continued baseless, unjustified criticism directed towards our mission from Azerbaijan is really, I mean it's first of all, it's totally baseless and it's really regrettable. One part or one of the ambitions of the mission was also to engage with Azerbaijan in confidence building measures, and this offer stands. So, we are repeating on every occasion the offer to Azerbaijan to engage with our mission because it will bring only benefits. This is a civilian unarmed mission that is deployed on the sovereign Armenian territory with the task to observe what is going on and to report and to reassure Armenians that, I mean there is a EU partner that is watching over their safety and security. This is not a mission directed against anyone. The mission intends to enhance stability and hopefully also eventually contribute to confidence building, so our offer to engage with Azerbaijan stands, but at the same time very decisively we are rejecting all the baseless allegations and criticism against this mission, " he stated.