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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed Monday to send up to 40 experts to Armenia to help monitor its border with Azerbaijan in a bid to help repair peace and build a bond between longtime foes.
The observer project will be deployed for up to two months. It aims to restore some confidence at a time when the lack of security “puts lives in danger and jeopardizes the conflict resolution procedure,” the EU headquarters said in a statement.
Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan brokered a ceasefire to end an outbreak of fighting that left 155 people dead on both sides.
The EU project will contribute to the elaboration of border projects established earlier this year to address considerations on the demarcation of the two countries’ shared border.
The ex-Soviet countries are locked in a decades-long standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian-backed ethnic Armenian forces since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
The concept of an EU follow-up project emerged after the leaders of former foes Turkey and Armenia held their first face-to-face meeting earlier this month since the two countries agreed relations.