Russia ready to host negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan - Galuzin
YEREVAN, December 13. /ARKA/. Russia stands ready to host Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization talks and expects both to take into account this proposal, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin was quoted by Tass news agency as saying.
"The Russian side's invitations to Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue the dialogue on peaceful settlement on the basis of the principles that were formulated by the leaders of our countries in November 2020 and later remain in force, remain open," Galuzin said.
Galuzin declined to say whether there is a chance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan holding a trilateral meeting at the upcoming informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg, slated for December 26. "I would prefer, as a diplomat, to refrain from forecasts," he said
Galuzin also argued that the expansion of the EU civilian monitoring mission in Armenia will not facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.
According to him, the deployment of the mission in Armenia is an absolutely unnecessary step in terms of facilitating the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.
"The European Union is bringing nothing new to the South Caucasus except for additional tension and mistrust," Galuzin claimed, adding that the EU policy in the South Caucasus "is exclusively directed at pushing Russia out of the region."
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell told on Monday that the EU will increase the EU mission in Armenia from 138 to 209 people. -0-
