BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 23. The foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries intend to approve a new EU mission in Armenia at a meeting scheduled to be held during the day, which should contribute to the settlement of the situation in the region, a high-ranking representative of the EU told reporters in Brussels, Trend reports via TASS.
According to the source, the EU is concerned about the events taking place around the Lachin-Khankendi road and is making efforts to resolve the situation.
On October 17, 2022, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU at its meeting decided to deploy about 40 expert observers of the EU from the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan in order to monitor, analyze and report on the situation in the South Caucasus region. On December 19, 2022, the mandate of the EU monitoring mission in Armenia was completed.
Meanwhile, the peaceful protest on the Lachin-Khankendi road against the illicit exploitation of Azerbaijan's mineral resources in the area of Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment has been going on for over forty days.
Previously, following the talks with the Russian peacekeepers' command on December 3 and 7, 2022, a group of experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Property Service under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold CJSC were going to begin preliminary monitoring of the illicit mineral resource exploitation, as well as emerging environmental implications on Azerbaijani lands, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed, on December 10, 2022.
The expert team was expected to inspect the environmental condition at the 'Gizilbulagh' gold deposit and the 'Damirli' copper-molybdenum deposit, monitor various areas, organize cadastral property records, assess potential risks and threats to the environment, as well as to underground and surface water sources.
However, when arriving in the monitoring area, the expert group, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, faced provocations. The planned initial inspection and monitoring did not take place due to the fact that the Russian peacekeepers not only did not create necessary conditions and prevented for the entire process to carry on.