During the plenary debate held last night on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, ALDE Group’s Vice President, Petras Auštrevičius (Liberal Movement of Lithuania), called on the European External Action Service to find ways to increase the EU’s contribution to supporting peace and stability in the region:  

"I call on the EEAS to come up with the resolute strategy, which would give the EU a strong negotiating position and which would further our Eastern Partnership goals -- to support peace and stability in our neighbourhood. The argument from 1994 when the Minsk Group was set up and the EU was not considered as a global player and mediator is not valid any longer. The EU is a global actor and is capable of contributing to the dialogue and security of our Eastern partners in the South Caucasus. I also call for attention to be paid to the unprecedented arms race by both sides in this conflict, which  for a number of years has been boosted by one major arms supplier -- Russia."

Earlier, this year, Russia granted Armenia a $200 million loan to finance the procurement of military hardware from Moscow, but Russian officials have indicated plans to keep arming both sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Over the past five years, Azerbaijan has purchased Russian-made arms worth some $4 billion.

ENDS