Foreign

Foreign

Peter Semneby: â€œWe are very worried with the armament process in the region, it will be very dangerousâ€

26 February 2011 12:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“ APA. EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby held his last meeting with Azerbaijani journalists in this status, APA reports. Mr. Semneby reminded that he had worked in this status for 5 years and his visits to the region for during this period: â€œI had very good relations with the Azerbaijani governmental bodies, we kept contacts both wit the representatives of the Presidentâ€™s Office and the political bodies as well as civil societies. I was very glad to see how they were working for the countryâ€™s developmentâ€.

The diplomat said that the European Union had got more information about the region during his working as the Special Representative: â€œI am very glad that I also had a great role in this deal. I was occupied generally with political reforms, human rights, liberty, good management issues and etc. Azerbaijan integrated towards the Europe in many issues. I was also occupied with Nagorno Karabakh conflict during this time. The European Union increased the level of its work on this issue. It means that the European Union supports the efforts of Minsk Group, I highly assess Russian and President Dmitry Medvedevâ€™s efforts. If we had not these efforts, the situation would have been worse. We are very worried with the armament process in the region, it will be very dangerousâ€.

Semneby said that he had not determined which post he would take after the leaving the post of the special representative: â€œthere are changes in European Unionâ€™s foreign policy, if there is such an appointment, there will be changes in the mandate of those representatives. But there isnâ€™t any concrete decision on it.â€

Head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan Roland Kobia said that eliminating the position of Special Representative for the South Caucasus is not a sign to reduce the involvement of EU in the region: â€œThe mutual interests always exist. There are the embassies of EU member-states in Azerbaijan, three of them have been recently opened. The issues which are on agenda of Azerbaijan and the European Union are such issues as the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the work on associative agreement and simplification of visa regimeâ€.