Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev allegedly refused to meet with Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib on Thursday because she made a statement over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict earlier this week in Armenia.
Lahbib embarked on a four-day trip to the South Caucasus region on Monday, notably to promote peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
On Tuesday, she began her tour in Armenia, where she met with her counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. She also visited a memorial for the victims of the Armenian genocide, becoming the first Belgian Foreign Minister to do so since Belgium recognised the atrocity.
Speaking after a meeting with her Armenian counterpart, she reiterated her concern about the current humanitarian situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where most Armenians live.
The Lachin corridor – the only link between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region – has been subject to a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan, putting some 120,000 people at risk of starvation, while water and electricity shortages are increasing, according to Yerevan.
Lahbib then reiterated the position of the EU and Belgium, asking Azerbaijan to guarantee free movement in the corridor. “The only viable path to peace is through dialogue and compromise,” she tweeted later that day.
The following day, she was in Georgia, where she met with her Georgian counterpart, Ilia Darchiashvili. There, she reaffirmed Belgium’s support for Georgia on its EU candidacy path through the pursuit of reforms. She also visited the boundary separating the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“Belgium supports Georgia’s territorial integrity. A negotiated solution, by international law, is essential,” she said on X, formerly Twitter.
On Thursday, after arriving in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Belgian minister was supposed to meet with President Aliyev, but the meeting was cancelled.
According to Azeri news website Trend, Aliyev cancelled the meeting because of the Belgian minister’s “pro-Armenian stance and unfounded statements” in Armenia. Yet, according to a Belgian source, Le Soir reported that this was caused by a scheduling issue and had been decided before Lahbib even left Belgium.
She did, however, meet with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. The two ministers discussed “a number of issues in the field of bilateral relations, trade, investment,” Trend reports. Lahbib notably underlined the importance of Azerbaijan’s partnership with the EU, especially in the energy sector.
The Belgian minister said she also discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and “reiterated Belgium and the European Union’s commitment to promote a negotiated solution”, keeping the same position as in Armenia.
For his part, Bayramov, cited by Trends, called for the end of double standards about Azerbaijan: “We hope that at least sometimes the political manipulations offered by Armenia will not be so easily perceived by Europe”.
He also repeated “Azerbaijan’s commitment to bilateral normalisation and peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” adding that “malign actions and [the] propaganda agenda of Armenia is unacceptable.”
(Anne-Sophie Gayet & Nina Chabot | EURACTIV.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
September to start with key by-election in Lithuania
Source: euractiv.com
