The French Foreign Minister is traveling to Azerbaijan and Armenia this week at a time when strong tensions between Baku and Yerevan are raising fears of a new conflict in this region in southern Russia.
Catherine Colonna will arrive on Wednesday April 26 and will end her tour on Friday in Tbilisi, Georgia, a country which, like Ukraine and Moldova, applied for membership of the European Union shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"I am making this important trip as part of France's efforts to reduce tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is essential after the recurring clashes of recent months", underlined the minister
to the AFP.
The two former Soviet republics have been in conflict for thirty years for the control of the enclave of Nagorny Karabakh, a region mainly populated by Armenians who seceded from Baku at the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Armenia had won the first war in 1994, Azerbaijan the second in 2020. The Russian-sponsored ceasefire, however, did not result in a peace treaty.
And, despite the deployment of Russian peacekeepers, deadly clashes in Nagorny Karabakh or on the border between the two countries continue to break out periodically.
“A positive signal”
Catherine Colonna's regional tour is
“a positive signal”
, believes Leyla Abdullayeva, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Paris, saying she is
“rather confident about the bilateral discussions”
.
The diplomat nevertheless fears that the minister will send a public message favorable to Armenia from Yerevan, to spare the large Armenian community in France.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry recently sharply criticized Paris, urging it
“to refrain”
from making statements of support for Armenia.
