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Elnur Enveroglu

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels in his visit to the Kingdom of Belgium.

Having welcomed the restoration of the Brussels format of the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, both Azerbaijani and EU Council leaders first discussed the developments related to Azerbaijan-Armenia relations in recent months, the Washington negotiations, the situation on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, as well as the agenda of the trilateral meeting held with the participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of the European Council Charles Michel and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

In fact, in this meeting, the disappointment of the Prime Minister of Armenia was of a clear manifestation of his failure; for some reason, Pashinyan, who has been dreaming for France's participation in the meeting for a long time, was looking destitute and hopeless. This meeting shows that the Brussels format is being restored, and after the meeting in Prague there were some problems in the implementation of the Brussels format. So, as a result of France's intervention, France and Armenia purposefully wanted to hold a meeting in a quadrilateral format and worked in this direction.

This time, the political power of Azerbaijan defeats the French-Armenian duo and waters down their dreams; as a result, thanks to Azerbaijan's will and firm position, a meeting is held in the Brussels format, and this meeting takes place without France.

As a matter of fact, both Pashinyan and his entourage did not want to come, insisting that they would not participate in this format. But in the end they had to come…

In general, in the Brussels format, Azerbaijan feels completely comfortable in the meetings held in the trilateral format and does not see any hostile attitude in this meeting. On the whole, relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are normal, but France's intervention has given the process a completely different content.

In general, a country like France, which has taken a pro-Armenian position and publicly demonstrates it, should not interfere in the peace processes between the two countries. Such a move could have seriously undermined the transparency of the Brussels format. The fact that France did not participate in this meeting, the gaps in both the internal and foreign policy of France are of great importance here. The influence of France, for example, within the EU itself has dramatically decreased in recent times. This is a direct result of the reforms that Macron wants to implement in France and the resistance of the French people and so on, as well as the failed policies of France itself in Africa and in various countries around the world. As a result, Pashinyan came again, and here the Brussels peace agenda and Azerbaijan's will is to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region. In other words, it is the Armenian side that prevents the peace process to realise.

Besides, it should be noted that the next meeting is expected in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova - also with the participation of France. However, the fact that Germany and France will participate in the upcoming meeting of the European Political Union in Chisinau will be purely informal. Within the framework of this forum, as a whole, various external events and meetings are expected to be held within the framework of every international event. In the framework of such an external meeting, the participation of Germany and France can be ensured and they can participate in an informal way.

As regards the Germany's participation, it is of course, very normal for Azerbaijan. Germany is a friendly partner state with Azerbaijan which was tangible with its unequivocal position against Armenia's policy of occupation. In the sense that Germany has always said that we recognize the territorial integrity of all countries, Azerbaijan. Moving borders by force is not acceptable for Azerbaijan, and Germany's intervention in this process aims to partially neutralize this position of pro-Armenian France. Germany itself understood very well that French intervention could lead the process in a negative direction.

In a nutshell, the Brussels format is restored. This meeting is directly an example of it, and it has a trilateral nature, EU-Azerbaijan-Armenia. There is no question of mediation here. Charles Michel simply acts in a supporting role and function in the proceedings. The basis of the Brussels peace agenda is the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the signing of a peace treaty and the restoration of communications. In this meeting, humanitarian issues, the problem of landmines, and the problem of missing persons were of a very urgent nature. Although Armenia spoke against holding the meeting in this format, in the end, Pashinyan still gave his consent to participate in this format and he came and participated at the meeting. As regards the fourth party, i.e, France's participation, as we have seen, was feasible. So, this means that Brussels meeting is the total expression of Azerbaijan's political power, where Azerbaijan has shown its will again.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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