Azerbaijan for an individual approach in the Eastern Partnership

Baku / 05.11.19 / Turan: Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov welcomed the revision of the EU approaches in the neighborhood policy and the departure from the principle of "one dimension for all." He stated this on November 5 in Stockholm at a high-level ministerial seminar: “A New Political Vision for the Eastern Partnership”. 

He praised the EU’s transition to the concept of differentiation with respect to partners, which should be based on the needs and “wishes” of countries.

“The choice should be for the partner countries, not the EU,” he said, and continued that Azerbaijan expects proposals from the EU on a “specific and differentiated agenda.”

Each partner may have different development strategies and views, taking into account the geostrategic location and regional threats. Azerbaijan is the largest investor in the EU among the countries of the Eastern Partnership, but has never claimed a special priority status, the minister said.

Then he touched on the Karabakh conflict.

“One country cannot occupy 20% of the territory of another, calling itself democratic and turning more than 1 million people into refugees and internally displaced persons,” continued Mammadyarov.

“Security cooperation is likely to become an important dimension in our dialogue with the EU. Azerbaijan is turning to Europe to determine and expand its efforts to solve problems in the areas of cybersecurity, energy infrastructure security, radicalism, unresolved conflicts, extremism and terrorism,” he continued.

Armenia not only occupies the territory of Azerbaijan, but also violates this process, undermining efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Speaking about the prospects of the Eastern Partnership, Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan prefers an individual approach.

Azerbaijan is becoming a supplier of natural gas, which could be an ideal transitional fuel for the EU. “Our gas pipeline to the EU is a direct contribution to the goals of the EU climate policy,” Mammadyarov said. –06D-