By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
azemedia-new-logo
  • Donation
  • Who we are
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Ecology
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • Gender
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
Aze.Media
Aa
Search
  • News
  • Economy
  • Ecology
  • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Diaspora
  • Who we are
Follow US
© 2021 Aze.Media – Daily Digest
Aze.Media > News > Charles Michel heralds more EU involvement in the South Caucasus
News

Charles Michel heralds more EU involvement in the South Caucasus

European Council President Charles Michel will attend a regional summit in the Georgian Black Sea city of Batumi on Monday (19 July), after a weekend visit of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in what appears as an attempt to keep the region closer to the EU. 

AzeMedia
By AzeMedia Published July 19, 2021 8 Min Read
Charles-Michel-Salome-Zourabishvili-800x450
Council President Charles and the President of Georgia Michel Salome Zourabishvili in Batumi on 19 July 2021. [Council Newsroom]

After his personal efforts to help solve the internal political crisis in Georgia, described by some as risky, Michel took another challenge by involving the EU in new mediation efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war last autumn over Nagorno-Karabakh which claimed some 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire under which Yerevan ceded territories it had controlled for decades.

Tensions have been running high again since May — when Armenia accused Azerbaijan’s military of crossing its southern border — with both countries reporting occasional shootouts along their shared border.

Michel, who was in Armenia on Saturday, called on the so-called Minsk Group “to assume its responsibilities and address different topics” of the post-conflict settlement. The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and is co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.

But the Minsk Group has been largely inactive since the ceasefire. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had insisted that “the Karabakh conflict has been resolved for good” and has rejected Yerevan’s calls to negotiate on the region’s political status.

Honest broker

In Azerbaijan, Michel went further, stating that the EU “is ready to play a constructive role as an honest broker with Azerbaijan and Armenia in addition to the Minsk group efforts”.

The EU is ready to play a constructive role as an honest broker with #Azerbaijan and #Armenia in addition to the Minsk group efforts.

We want to share our expertise to provide more stability and to promote sustainable peace in the region.@presidentaz pic.twitter.com/0eWpPvbd76

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) July 18, 2021

Previous EU positions have always been that no duplication was needed and that the proper body to manage the conflict was the OSCE.

Speaking alongside Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Michel said that among the issues on which the EU could provide expertise are the exchange of prisoners and the availability of mine maps, which were partly resolved, but also the delimitation of borders, for which he said “we are ready to provide European expert assistance and, if necessary and desired, European monitoring”.

He added that there was also the issue of the armed forces located close to the disputed areas, which in his words should also be discussed.

From Baku Michel flew to Batumi where he is expected to attend a meeting of the Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova later on Monday. The meeting marks a rapprochement between the three countries, which share a common desire to join the EU.

The summit, hosted by the President of Georgia Salome Zourabishvili, coincides with the annual Batumi International Conference, a high point in Georgia’s foreign affairs agenda.

According to diplomats, what made the Trio summit possible was the outstanding victory of the pro-European forces in Moldova last Sunday.

For Georgia, who last April initiated the Associated Trio format, the presence of Charles Michel at such gathering would be a major blessing, diplomats told EURACTIV.

Until now the Trio initiative was met with suspicion in Brussels, because it changes the format of relations with the six former Soviet republics in the EU neighbourhood – Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The six are packed together in the so-called Eastern Partnership, despite the fact that Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have Association agreements with the EU and are much more ambitious in terms of integration and even future membership of the Union.

Not a Brussels invention

Another reason why the EU was suspicious of the Trio initiative is that it was not a Brussels invention, a diplomat said. In his words, initiatives to keep pro-EU attitudes alive in the region appear once every five years, the latest one being the visa liberalisation scheme. But in the lack of new initiatives from Brussels, the region came up with its own plan, the diplomat said.

However, the Trio initiative also has its internal problems. Probably the biggest is Ukraine’s agreement to host Mikheil Saakashvili, the former President of Georgia and leader of the country’s major opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM) of Georgia.

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 a year after his party lost a parliamentary election, and was charged and sentenced in 2017 in absentia, on charges of abuse of public office and corruption. He now lives in Ukraine, which has no extradition agreement with Georgia. There, Saakashvili is popular and is still seen as a pro-Western reformer.

UNM keeps boycotting international efforts at solving the internal Georgian crisis, spearheaded by Charles Michel.

Diplomats said that a lot of work had been needed to prepare the visit of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Batumi, and that details of the programme kept changing by the hour.

As an example, instead of a discussion between the Presidents moderated by journalist Rikard Jozwiak, the Presidents will only pronounce speeches.

A high point of the meeting of the three Presidents and Charles Michel is expected to take place in the Petra fortress, south of Batumi.

In the 6th century, under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the Petra fortress served as an important Eastern Roman outpost in the Caucasus and, due to its strategic location, became a battleground of the 541–562 Lazic War between Rome and Sasanian Persia, the ancient version of today’s Iran.

Today is a very important day for Georgia’s European future. Thank you to @eucopresident for taking part in this.

More EU in Georgia is a strong message for our progress and our development, a message that remains unchanged despite all challenges. pic.twitter.com/FMnDJNrFEs

— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) July 19, 2021

Euractiv.com

You Might Also Like

3rd Azerbaijan-Türkiye Energy Forum kicks off in Nakhchivan

The court in Baku has arrested Vardanyan for 4 months.

MFA: ‘We do understand how it hurts Armenia to see a separatist regime established in the territories of Azerbaijan collapsing before its eyes’

State Security Service: Ruben Vardanyan charged with financing terrorism

Former separatist ‘foreign minister’ surrenders to Azerbaijani authorities

AzeMedia July 19, 2021

New articles

0c9689d8-4d8b-3886-aa4d-8ffcecfee35a_850
3rd Azerbaijan-Türkiye Energy Forum kicks off in Nakhchivan
Energy September 29, 2023
Bildschirmfoto 2023-09-28 um 19.59.34
Film director: Armenia wants to be independent country or colony?
Interview September 28, 2023
c870307b-77c0-3921-8ce1-ab2b1c2e0a26_850
Amirbekov: Armenians who left Azerbaijan will be able to return
Karabakh September 28, 2023
Screenshot_1-21-1536x780
Azerbaijan announces the commencement of registration for Armenians in Karabakh
Karabakh September 28, 2023
ToFig
Tofig Zulfugarov: There will be a trial similar to the Nuremberg trials
Interview September 28, 2023
PostIAC2023-02e60bdf56-5d54-4085-ae0d-ec13255d8cc4
Scientists representing the Azerbaijani diaspora will participate in the upcoming 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku
Science September 28, 2023
ruben-vardanyan3-arest
The court in Baku has arrested Vardanyan for 4 months.
News September 28, 2023
1585840780_3950057_1585840663_9313655406236125
MFA: ‘We do understand how it hurts Armenia to see a separatist regime established in the territories of Azerbaijan collapsing before its eyes’
News September 28, 2023
6515260dcf4166515260dcf41716958848136515260dcf4136515260dcf415-e1695885762454
State Security Service: Ruben Vardanyan charged with financing terrorism
News September 28, 2023
7f5257a6-aa4a-3413-b4f4-1f7a064e5e7b_850
Former separatist ‘foreign minister’ surrenders to Azerbaijani authorities
News September 28, 2023

You Might Also Like

0c9689d8-4d8b-3886-aa4d-8ffcecfee35a_850

3rd Azerbaijan-Türkiye Energy Forum kicks off in Nakhchivan

September 29, 2023 2 Min Read
ruben-vardanyan3-arest

The court in Baku has arrested Vardanyan for 4 months.

September 28, 2023 0 Min Read
1585840780_3950057_1585840663_9313655406236125

MFA: ‘We do understand how it hurts Armenia to see a separatist regime established in the territories of Azerbaijan collapsing before its eyes’

September 28, 2023 2 Min Read
6515260dcf4166515260dcf41716958848136515260dcf4136515260dcf415-e1695885762454

State Security Service: Ruben Vardanyan charged with financing terrorism

September 28, 2023 3 Min Read
7f5257a6-aa4a-3413-b4f4-1f7a064e5e7b_850

Former separatist ‘foreign minister’ surrenders to Azerbaijani authorities

September 28, 2023 0 Min Read
View on Khankendi

Game over: “Artsakh” project closed

September 28, 2023 1 Min Read
gadzhiev-mishel-grigoryan4444444444444444444444444444444

Statement by Spokesperson for President of the European Council Charles Michel on Armenia-Azerbaijan normalisation

September 27, 2023 4 Min Read
384312740_10211923870327667_7769440478276460499_n

Ruben Vardanyan detained at Lachin border checkpoint and brought to Baku

September 27, 2023 1 Min Read

Useful links

c24a7d34-02d2-45a2-95ad-980aa8264ad5-pojkz9yv6xhhbce432wwxbxmnoy6uz3duxvaa480e8
426082d1-a9e4-4ac5-95d4-4e84024eb314-pojkz91103g6zqfh8kiacu662b2tn9znit7ssu9ekg
ab65ed96-2f4a-4220-91ac-f70a6daaf659-pojkz67iflcc0wjkp1aencvsa5gq06ogif9cd0dl34
96e40a2b-5fed-4332-83c6-60e4a89fd4d0-pojkz836t9ewo4gue23nscepgx7gfkvx6okbbkasqo
759bde00-a375-4fa1-bedc-f8e9580ceeca-pq8mvb9kwubqf6bcadpkq5mz16nayr162k3j2084cg
aze-media-logo-ag1

Aze.Media offers an independent and strategic insight on socio-cultural, political and economic life in Azerbaijan.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Cookies Policy

Email: editor@aze.media

© 2023 Aze.Media – Daily Digest

Removed from reading list

Undo
aze-media-logo1 aze-media-logo-ag1
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?