MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The expansion of the EU monitoring mission in Armenia will not facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told TASS.

"Its very arrival in Armenia is an absolutely unnecessary step in terms of facilitating the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement," the senior Russian diplomat noted at a reception in honor of the late Heydar Aliyev, the National Leader of the Azerbaijani nation. "We are convinced that expanding the European Union’s mission will be absolutely useless and will not produce any results from the point of view of facilitating the Azeri-Armenian settlement with its main principles developed in November, 2020, by the top leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and enshrined in several joint trilateral statements," he added.

"The European Union is bringing nothing new to the Transcaucasia region except for additional tension and mistrust," Galuzin concluded.

The high-ranking diplomat also pointed out that the EU policy in the South Caucasus "is exclusively directed at pushing Russia out of there." "While using our expertise in the process of a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan," he stressed.

Earlier, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell at a press conference following a meeting of top EU diplomats said that they had made a decision to increase the EU mission in Armenia by 50%, from 138 to 209 people.