Diplomacy

In the lead-up to this year's NATO Summit in Washington D.C., it was uncertain whether Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov would meet. However, a last-minute announcement confirmed that they would, albeit not in a bilateral format, but with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Expectations were low, given disagreements over Azerbaijani demands for Armenia to change its constitution and the United States now apparently pushing its own vision for unblocking trade and communication in the region. Nonetheless, Blinken again emphasised that the two were close to reaching a deal. The foreign ministers issued identical scant three-paragraph statements which at least referred to a “historic agreement.”

The European Union has condemned several waves of large-scale attacks on several Ukrainian cities carried out by Russia on Monday (8 July). 

From 9 to 11 July, Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, will make an official visit to the Republic of Moldova to launch the EU's bilateral accession screening process with Moldova, starting with the basics. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is in the Chinese capital Beijing. He is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later today (8 Juli). What exactly they will talk about is not known.

In a statement issued on Tuesday (2 July), the European Union "strongly condemned" the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea on 1 July, in further violation of UN Security Council resolutions.