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EU Ready To Step Up Efforts Towards Nagorny Karabakh Settlement, Say

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  • EU Ready To Step Up Efforts Towards Nagorny Karabakh Settlement, Say

    EU READY TO STEP UP EFFORTS TOWARDS NAGORNY KARABAKH SETTLEMENT, SAYS ASHTON

    ENPI Info Centre
    July 7 2011

    Armenia and Azerbaijan need to redouble their efforts to find an
    agreement on Nagorny Karabakh before the end of this year, and the
    EU should be prepared to take on significant responsibilities in the
    implementation of a settlement, EU High Representative for Foreign
    Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton has told Members of the
    European Parliament.

    In a speech in Strasbourg on 6 July, she said the EU was "ready and
    committed to step up its efforts in support of the work of the Minsk
    Group Co-Chairs."

    The EU foreign affairs chief expressed regret that President Aliyev
    of Azerbaijan and President Sargisyan of Armenia had not taken the
    opportunity to reach a compromise at recent talks in Kazan, Russia,
    and urged them to continue efforts towards an agreement on the Basic
    Principles of the settlement as "the first step in a process leading to
    the drafting of a formal peace agreement, and then its implementation."

    Ashton emphasized that the agreement on the Basic Principles should
    be reached before domestic priorities take over next year: elections
    in Armenia in 2012, and in Azerbaijan in 2013.

    She said the peaceful settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict
    was a key strategic interest of the EU. It would transform the South
    Caucasus region, pave the way towards political and regional stability,
    and new economic opportunities, and the South Caucasus could finally
    become what it should have been already - a gateway between Europe
    and Asia, said Catherine Ashton.

    She underlined that the EU had an ambitious agenda for the countries
    of the South Caucasus, namely new Association Agreements, as well as
    Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas, including improved access
    to the EU's internal market.

    The High Representative concluded by saying: "I also believe more
    confident, attractive and modern countries with ambitious reform
    agendas are in a stronger position to overcome the difficult legacies
    of the past." (ENPI Info Centre)


    From: Baghdasarian
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