BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 24. The EU has decided to establish a civilian European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border on January 23, Trend reports.
This can also be considered another attempt by France to intervene in the South Caucasus matters.
The decision to send a border mission to Armenia was made during a meeting between the leaders of Azerbaijan, France, the Council of the European Union, and Armenia on October 6, 2022, in Prague. The mission should have been short-term. However, this time, contrary to the results of the Prague meeting, the EU made a new decision. It was noted that the new mission will last 2 years. Naturally, the goal is to make the mission permanent.
At a briefing last week, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov noted that the EU mission on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border will be counterproductive without Baku's consent. He also said that instead of building trust at the border, it can create additional problems.
The issues related to this mission should have been agreed upon with the Azerbaijani side, but the EU did not do this and decided to send the mission on its own. The new EU decision serves not to stabilize, but to aggravate the situation in the region.