Yerevan /Mediamax/. Stefan Meister, the head of the Program for International Order and Democracy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), said that “the primary goal of the EU in the South Caucasus remains weakening Russia’s influence.”
Speaking at the forum entitled “Finding Stability in an Unstable World,” organized by APRI Armenia think tank in Yerevan, Stefan Meister said that the EU’s desire to deepen ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan simultaneously does not contain a contradiction.
“The EU should develop relations with all countries in the region. Energy ties with Azerbaijan are long-term and did not start recently. Azerbaijan is one of the energy suppliers and transit routes. Interest in Armenia has increased since 2022, but it is more about economic diversification and security sector reform – not providing guarantees,” he said.
In response to the allegations that the EU did not make efforts to prevent the mass exodus of Armenians from Artsakh in 2023, Meister said:
“It is not fair to blame the EU as they have never offered any negotiation format but only facilitation. The EU didn’t have ambitions or tools to force conflicting parties to anything or to provide security guarantees.”
Meister noted that Armenia should understand that modern European policy is driven more by bureaucratic processes than by grand strategy.
In this regard, Élie Tenenbaum, Director of the Security Studies Center, French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) offered a different perspective, noting that some European countries, notably France, have realized that security concerns extend beyond Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia itself, which also explains the growing defense cooperation between Armenia and France.
However, Tenenbaum noted that while the West has become more aware of the nature of Aliyev’s regime, its relationship with Azerbaijan remains shaped by longstanding interdependencies, which take time to change.
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