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EU Special Representative visits border areas of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan

Magdalena Grono, the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia

01 September 2025 16:56 (UTC +04:00)

Familiarization with Nakhchivan’s existing railway infrastructure opens up broad prospects for the development of cooperation, said Magdalena Grono, the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, while commenting on her visit to Nakhchivan, APA reports.

According to her, the meeting held as part of her visit with Fuad Najafli, the authorized representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, was constructive and productive: “I was very pleased with the meeting, as open and sincere discussions were held on cooperation. We had the opportunity to visit the border areas of Nakhchivan. This is just the beginning of mutual engagement, and the fact that this process has started shortly after the Washington meeting is highly commendable. Naturally, railway infrastructure holds an important place on our agenda. We are ready to contribute to this project by conducting technical compatibility assessments,” Grono noted.

She added that during the visit, opportunities for cooperation in areas such as socio-economic development, tourism, agriculture, construction, and other sectors were also widely discussed: “My colleagues representing the European Commission are also participating in this visit, and we are quite interested in continuing discussions in new contexts.”

Magdalena Grono emphasized that Nakhchivan is a region of significant strategic importance, where many key communication lines and routes intersect: “Unfortunately, many of these routes have been closed for years and were also part of the former conflict. The region has had limited communication capabilities. However, I believe that the opening of these routes now and, more broadly, the development of transport and communication infrastructure will benefit all countries in the region. It is precisely in this context that we are here. Both the opening of routes and the establishment and expansion of links between Europe and Asia—including the Central Asian countries—are among our priority issues.”