The European Union has decided not to extend a two-month monitoring mission launched along Armenia's border with Azerbaijan on October 20.
Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced this decision made by the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
“We have reviewed our [EU] Monitoring Capacity to Armenia which will be completing its activities by December 19 in line with the agreement with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. We agreed to withdraw the Mission because it has reached [its] end and deploy a team to explore possible further European Union engagement,” the EU chief diplomat said, adding that a team will be deployed to Armenia to plan a possible civilian mission to be launched possibly next year. The task is to maintain EU credibility as a facilitator of the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
EU set up monitoring capacity along the Armenian border since the deadly clashes in September that raised fears of a large-scale conflict in the region, which led to high-level four-way mediation talks in Prague earlier in October․
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