President receives EU Special Representative Herbert Salber

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan received EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Herbert Salber who has arrived in Armenia on a regional visit.

At the outset, the president congratulated Herbert Salber on the occasion of being appointed as EU Special Representative and expressed the hope that during his tenure he will make his personal contribution to enhancing the relations between Armenia and the European Union and at the same time, will utilize the experience gained while serving as Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center to promote peace and security in our region. Serzh Sargsyan underscored that Armenia attaches great value to the position of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and assured that our country is ready to promote constructive cooperation.

Herbert Salber stressed that with his appointment the European Union wants to send a message that it is committed to engaging in the settlement of the existing conflicts and promoting cooperation. According to him, it is exactly what his visit to the three countries of the region shortly after the appointment is aimed at.

At the meeting, the RA President and the EU Special Representative touched upon the Armenia-European Union relations and the cooperation between them.

The interlocutors exchanged views on regional issues and challenges and the process of the negotiations over the peaceful resolution of the NKR conflict. The Armenian President highly appreciated the fact that the European Union has continuously expressed its support to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ mediation efforts aimed at resolving the conflict through peaceful means and in compliance with the principles of international law.

Serzh Sargsyan reaffirmed the position of our country, according to which the peaceful resolution of the NKR conflict is possible exclusively through peaceful means and within the negotiation format of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. According to the president, such approach is based, among other things, upon the fact that over the last two decades that group has accumulated considerable experience and has built institutional memory. The Minsk Group has proposed principles which according to Serzh Sargsyan can become pivotal to the conflict resolution. The president noted that unfortunately, Azerbaijan does not endorse those principles, even though it says the opposite. According to Serzh Sargsyan, this is the reason Azerbaijan continues committing provocative acts, aggravating tensions along the line of contact and denying the implementation of confidence building measures. The Armenian President underscored that the conflict must be resolved by the efforts of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh; the Minsk Group is just a mediator in that process which does its best within its power.