Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Azerbaijan expects from the European Union a clear position on settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after a new Azerbaijan-EU strategic partnership agreement is signed.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev announced about this while talking to Trend, further adding that this is the most important issue to be discussed within the framework of the future talks between Azerbaijan and the EU.

He added that Azerbaijan made it clear that the country intends to hold talks in this direction, because this issue is of particular importance for Baku.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The EU has repeatedly voiced that it favors a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and supports all efforts in this direction, including the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Mammad-Guliyev further said that the future format of talks between Azerbaijan and the EU on the draft partnership agreement will still be specified.

“The current format of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation within the framework of the existing agreement within the subcommittees can be maintained in the future as well,” he said.

Noting that subcommittees in other areas may be established as well, he said It all depends on the subject of negotiations.

Four subcommittees operate between Azerbaijan and the EU: the first subcommittee deals with trade issues, the second one deals with issues of justice, freedom, security, human rights and democracy, the third one deals with issues of energy, transport and environment, and the fourth one deals with social and humanitarian issues, covering the fields of education, medicine, etc.

Regarding the period of launching the talks, Mammad-Guliyev said that this issue will still be discussed with the Union.

The European Council on November 14 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.

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.

The new agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighbourhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, said the message.

The new agreement envisages the compliance of Azerbaijan’s legislation and procedures with the EU’s most important international trade norms and standards, which should lead to the improvement of Azerbaijani goods’ access to the EU markets.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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