By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini paid a visit to Armenia on March 1. The day before the senior EU official was in neighboring Azerbaijan.

Judging from Mogherini’s joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, only one specific issue was settled during the visit. Earlier, the Armenian minister informed the visiting official that Armenia had accepted about 20,000 refugees from Syria. In response, Mogherini noted that the EU was considering whether it could support Armenia in this respect also through the EU trust fund that was established to address the crisis. In other words, Armenia may receive part of international assistance for giving refugee to people fleeing Syria, virtually all of whom are ethnic Armenians.

Nalbandian also raised the issue of simplification of the visa regime, but at the press conference Mogherini did not answer the question on whether a softer regime was possible. Meanwhile, Armenia’s neighbor Georgia, which signed an association agreement with the EU in 2013, may get a visa-free regime with the EU already this spring.

Among the issues discussed was also the Karabakh conflict, and Mogherini made statements to the effect that there is no military solution to the problems. According to her, however, “the status quo is unsustainable”. She noted that the EU supports the initiative on the creation of an incident investigation mechanism and is ready to support the establishment of people-to-people contacts between the parties to the conflict. At the same time, while earlier visiting Azerbaijan, she said that the EU was concerned about attempts of destabilization of the situation in the region.

“We share the opinion that maintaining the status quo does not meet anyone’s interests. But it is clear that steps contributing to the escalation of the situation, the rejection of the commitment to solve the conflict solely through peaceful means, attempts to change the format of the negotiations, rejection of the proposal to set up a mechanism of investigating incidents and war rhetoric only contribute to the preservation of the status quo,” Minister Nalbandian underscored.

As for EU-Armenia relations, Mogherini noted that even in the difficult moments the EU was the number one investor and partner for Armenia. Nalbandian, in turn, reaffirmed Armenia’s willingness to expand cooperation in all areas, but only with the country’s commitments to other integration processes taken into consideration.

From January 2, 2015, Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. This membership announced in 2013 put an end to more than three years of negotiations on an Association Agreement with the EU. Yerevan and Brussels embarked on negotiations over a less ambitious legal basis for bilateral relations last December.