“The European Union is a reliable partner and we are supporting Armenia,” Wiktorin told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But we are also ready for greater involvement in the conflict’s resolution.”
“This has to be discussed with the two relevant countries,” she said, referring to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Wiktorin did not specify just how the EU could assist in Karabakh peace efforts more than four months after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
She said that the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, tried “see what we can do to support” those efforts when he visited Yerevan and met with Armenian officials late last month.
The diplomat stressed that the EU continues to strongly support the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. “We are in a continuing dialogue with them. We need a common approach,” she said.
Klaar said during his trip that the EU will continue to “work with Russia” for a Karabakh peace despite its mounting tensions with Moscow. He praised the Russians for brokering the ceasefire.
“The deployment of the [Russian] peacekeeping forces has helped to bring security and that is to be welcomed,” added the envoy.
Klaar travelled to the Armenian capital ahead of the entry into force on March 1 of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by the EU and Armenia in November 2017.
Wiktorin said that the CEPA upgraded Armenia’s relationship with the 27-nation bloc and will “broaden the scope of our cooperation.”