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Riga Summit supports territorial integrity of Eastern Partnership states

22 May 2015 17:50 (UTC+04:00)
Riga Summit supports territorial integrity of Eastern Partnership states

By Nigar Orujova

The Eastern Partnership final declaration highlights the EU's support for the territorial integrity, indivisibility, independence and sovereignty of all the Eastern Partnership member-states.

This was stated by Latvian Prime Minister, Laimdota Straujuma at the final press conference of the summit, Euronews reported on May 22.

The Eastern Partnership program envisages the political association and economic integration of the EU with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The summit participants emphasized the need for the earliest peaceful settlement of all conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law, the final declaration of the summit said.

“The resolution of conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation. The summit participants welcomed the EU's contribution to further promoting stability and confidence building, and underlined the need for stronger EU engagement in this regard,” the declaration said.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan, as a member of the program, suffers from the protracted conflict with another member of the program - Armenia, which occupies Azerbaijan’s territories for more than 20 years.

The summit participants reiterated their full support to the mediation efforts by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including at the presidential level and their statements since 2009.

For over two decades, the two South Caucasus countries have been locked in a conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan. This led to a war in the early 1990s which ended with Armenia armed forces occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions, all calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Participants also welcomed the progress made in defining a stronger basis for an upgraded contractual framework for EU-Azerbaijan bilateral relations in all areas of mutual interest.

The Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga aimed to evaluate the progress achieved in relations between the EU and all Eastern Partners since the last summit in Vilnius, and to identify and begin to formulate new strategic guidance on further steps to be taken.

Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, chief of foreign relations department stressed on the importance of considering mutual interests in cooperation between the EU and Eastern Partnership countries as he was attending the Eastern Partnership Summit, AzerTac state news agency reported.

“Our position has always been that relationship with each of the Eastern Partnership country should be built taking into account its features. And this summit seems to demonstrate that the EU leaders already took a different approach to cooperation with Eastern Partnership countries,” he said on the sidelines of the summit.

“We see that at this summit every country’s attitude to the issues on the agenda is based on their own interests. The sides should do their utmost to ensure that this cooperation is successful.”

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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