The EU’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia, Toivo Klaar, was in Yerevan over the weekend to meet with the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan.
The sides reportedly discussed EU-Armenian relations, and the implementation of the agreements reached after the Brussels meeting, including the work of the Border Security Commission and the unblocking of regional infrastructure. Pashinyan also praised the work of Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, for his contributions in bringing about regional stability, and emphasised the importance of the peace process continuing under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing activities.
Klaar re-iterated that the EU was working to deepen cooperation with Armenia and that the bloc supported regional dialogue.
As part of his visit, Klaar also met with other senior government officials such as the foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, and Ruben Rubinyan, Armenia’s special envoy for the normalisation of relations with Turkey, to discuss a range of issues relating to regional stability and the normalisation processes with both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service over the weekend, Klaar said that things were moving in the right direction, stressing the need for a comprehensive settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and adding that the EU supported all platforms which advanced the peace process as long as they helped move things in the right direction. He noted that he had received generally positive messages from both Baku and Yerevan.
Klaar also touched upon the issue of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, stating that they were “a party that must participate in the solution, no matter in what format. And it is very clear that the people of Karabakh have a fundamental interest in achieving a comprehensive settlement. I personally do not see how we can reach such a settlement without taking into account the opinion and point of view of those people”.
After Yerevan, EUSR Toivo Klaar visited Ankara where he had talks with Turkish officials.