Coordination between Washington and Brussels increases the likelihood of signing a comprehensive peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Damjan Krnjević, Director for Policy Research, Analysis and Publications of the Institute for Development and Diplomacy at the ADA University, told Report.
“First, this is the first leaders' meeting in many months. It took quite a long time for EU Council President Charles Michel to overcome the opposition of French President Emmanuel Macron, who insisted on personally participating in the EU facilitation of the peace talks,” he said.
An intra-EU compromise seems to have finally been worked out, he noted.
“Without active American support, the process would have likely reverted entirely into the hands of the Russian mediators - I am thinking specifically of the recent meetings between foreign ministers in Washington. This is not the first time that the United States has had to step in, constructively, to restart or drive the momentum. At the end of the day, one takeaway from what happened this weekend is that Brussels and Washington seem to be closely coordinating, with the outcome of the American thread of the process being woven into the European one.”
“Second, the fact that President Aliyev also met with EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič on Sunday suggests that the two main branches of the EU - the Council and the Commission - are also coordinating their approaches,” he added.
On May 14, Brussels hosted a trilateral meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of the Council of the European Union Charles Michel and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on the issues of normalizing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and reaching a peace agreement between the countries.