Borrell on Thursday described as “substantial” the meeting held in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje on the sidelines of an annual meeting of foreign ministers of OSCE member states. Writing on the X social media platform, he said they discussed “how to deepen bilateral relations and EU support.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said, for its part, that the two men focused on “expanding the agenda of the EU-Armenia partnership.” They reviewed “current prospects and efforts made in that direction,” it added in a statement.
Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan was also on the agenda, with Mirzoyan stressing the importance of “countering any challenges to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia.”
“The EU remains committed to achieving sustainable and comprehensive peace in the South Caucasus,” Borrell tweeted in that regard.
The talks came as a team of officials from the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, and External Action Service concluded a three-day visit to Yerevan during which they met with Deputy Prime Ministers Tigran Khachatrian and Mher Grigorian and other Armenian officials.
An EU statement said the delegation looked into “possibilities to deepen and strengthen EU-Armenia relations in all dimensions,” including defense and security.
“The meetings further confirmed the mutual interest of Armenia and the EU to further the dialogue and cooperation in the areas of security and defense,” it said. “The EU will, for instance, further explore non-lethal support to the Armenian military via the European Peace Facility.”
The facility is a special fund designed to boost EU partners’ defense capacity. Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian revealed in July that Yerevan requested “technical assistance” from the fund but was rebuffed by Brussels.
According to the EU statement, the 27-nation bloc also wants to “strengthen Armenia’s economic and social resilience in the longer term” and has already “mobilized” about 500 million euros ($540 million) for that purpose. Most of that funding is loans that are due to be provided by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government is seeking closer links with the EU amid its mounting tensions with Russia. Addressing the European Parliament in October, Pashinian effectively accused Moscow of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to topple him. A Russian official responded by saying that the Armenian premier is helping the West “turn Armenia into another Ukraine.”