EU envoy holds talks in Baku ahead of high-level engagement with South Caucasus

European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Magdalena Grono has held consultations in Baku with senior Azerbaijani officials, focusing on regional developments, Azerbaijan-EU relations, connectivity opportunities and the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Grono said she was pleased to return to Baku for intensive discussions with her Azerbaijani counterparts. During the visit, she met Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration; Elchin Amirbayov, Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on Special Assignments; and Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov.

According to the EU official, the talks covered the broader regional agenda, relations between Azerbaijan and the European Union, prospects for transport connectivity, the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process and upcoming high-level EU engagement with both Baku and Yerevan.

Grono noted that the sides agreed on the importance of preserving the momentum created by the historic progress achieved between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the path toward sustainable peace.

The European Union, she said, will continue to support this process.

The visit comes as Brussels is paying growing attention to the South Caucasus, both as a region moving through a sensitive post-conflict normalization phase and as an increasingly important transport and connectivity link between Europe and Asia.