EU greenlights Armenia mission to ease border tensions

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has agreed to dispatch a civilian mission to Armenia to help boost security around its border and improve relations with neighboring Azerbaijan. The move comes amid tensions over a transport corridor to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The mission was requested by Armenia and has a mandate for two years. EU headquarters said Monday that the mission will “conduct routine patrolling” in border areas to “strengthen the EU’s understanding of the situation on the ground.” Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The region is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994.