BTA news agency , Bulgaria
Dec 14 2012
EU Is Concerned with Escalation of Tension in Nagorno-Karabakh:
Bulgarian, Swedish, Polish, Armenian foreign ministers meet in Yerevan
Report by Nelly Zheleva
Yerevan, December 14 (BTA special correspondent Nelly Jeleva) — “In
the name of the European Union we sent a powerful appeal not to allow
additional actions which could increase the tension in
Nagorno-Karabakh now, but to undertake quick steps to tone it down,”
Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov told a news conference Friday [14
December].
Mladenov and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt are on a tour in
Southern Caucasus. Now they are in Armenia where their Polish
counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski joined them. The first meeting on the
agenda was with Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan.
The meeting also focused on the steps Armenia is to take so that at
the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in the spring next year it
may be one of the countries to sign a trade agreement with the EU.
Liberalisation of the visa regime between the EU and Yerevan was also
among the issues discussed.
To date this year some 4,000 visas of Armenian citizens travelling to
Bulgaria have been issued, particularly as organised tourists in the
summer season.
The four foreign ministers also discussed the situation in the Middle
East. There are some 8,000 Armenian refugees from Syria in Armenia,
Mladenov said. A total of 70,000 Armenian Christians in Syria have
left the conflict zones.
The stream of refugees from Syria to Bulgaria has not increased in
recent days, Mladenov specified.
From: A. Papazian