Armenia's Current Authorities Must Not Waste Accumulated Foreign Policy Capital - Ashotyan

Republican Party Vice President Armen Ashotyan has written in an article published in the "Hraparak" newspaper:

"By correlating the information flows and signals coming from Brussels and Baku, it becomes clear that the process of preparing a new agreement between Azerbaijan and the European Union is currently facing several problems, despite the procedural optimism voiced at meetings in the Mamedyarov-Mogherini format.

Let us try to understand why, during Serzh Sargsyan's tenure, Armenia was able to sign a new Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the EU, while the Azerbaijan-EU negotiations that started in March 2017 regarding the Strategic Partnership Agreement have been jeopardized, and Aliyev has not achieved real progress in the European direction until now.

1. The EU and Azerbaijan have not reached a consensus on aviation transport and the policy of the Common Aviation Area. Armenia signed the Common Aviation Area agreement in November 2017.
2. There is also no consensus on the liberalization of the visa issuance process between Baku and Brussels. Armenia, for its part, eliminated visa requirements for citizens of Schengen zone countries back in 2013.
3. Obstructions to finalizing the agreement also stem from Azerbaijan's resistance to democracy, anti-corruption efforts, and human rights-related articles. These issues are fully addressed in the agreement signed with Armenia and are almost identical to those in the agreements of the so-called Eastern Partnership associated countries.
4. Azerbaijan is not a member of the World Trade Organization, and despite the EU being prepared to sign an agreement as an exception for Azerbaijan if it presents a roadmap for joining the WTO, there has also been no progress in this regard. It should be noted that Armenia has been a WTO member since 2003.
5. And, of course, a serious issue is also the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. According to sources, the draft of the new EU-Azerbaijan agreement mentions the EU's support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, but Brussels refuses to unequivocally state that it recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. In the agreement signed with Armenia in 2017, the EU fully supports the format, activities, and proposed fundamental principles of the OSCE Minsk Group, including the right of peoples to self-determination.

The current mandate of the European Commission ends on November 1 of this year, and if the parties do not manage to resolve existing disagreements, the new European Commission will understandably slow down this process even further.

The Armenia-EU agreement signed in 2017 remains a unique political document and one of the most significant achievements of our country's foreign policy during those years. As repeatedly emphasized by the leaders and expert circles of both Armenia and the European Union, we have succeeded in signing such an ambitious document with the EU while being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union.

As you can see, we have worked in such a way that even today, two years later, Azerbaijan is unable to achieve progress toward Armenia in global political terms on the European direction.

This does not mean that all threats to Armenia and Artsakh have been neutralized. Let us not forget that the Southern Gas Corridor will be launched in 2020, through which Azerbaijani gas will reach EU countries, posing all related challenges.

The future of EU-Armenia relations requires careful attention. The agenda is more than full with the final ratification of CEPA, full and quality implementation of CEPA, the launch of a dialogue on visa liberalization, the prospects of the Eastern Partnership, global and regional security challenges, the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and more.

Therefore, Armenia's current authorities must not waste the accumulated foreign policy capital, and they must finally engage seriously with both foreign policy and the real reform agenda of the country."