Azerbaijan, EU prepare to start talks on new partnership deal
By Trend
Azerbaijan and the EU are actively preparing to start negotiations on a new strategic partnership agreement, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev told reporters in Baku November 25.
He added that the negotiations are unlikely to begin before late 2016.
Mammad-Guliyev said the EU’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be one of the main aspects of the future strategic partnership agreement.
The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan on Nov. 14.
The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today.
Currently, bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of an agreement on partnership and cooperation that was signed in 1996 and entered into force in 1999.
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