Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that his country wants to become an EU member state ‘unequivocally and without question’.
His remarks came as part of a panel discussion during the Security Forum of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA) in Yerevan on Wednesday.
According to the state-run media outlet Armenpress, Pashinyan emphasised the importance of the bill adopted by parliament greenlighting the country’s EU’s membership process.
‘Do we want to become a full member of the European Union? Yes, unequivocally and without question’, Pashinyan said, according to Armenpress.
He further stressed that Yerevan was ‘fully aware’ that there is a ‘very significant and important precondition’ for Armenia becoming an EU member: ‘the country must objectively meet EU standards, at least 97%,98%, 99%’.
‘Our strategy is as follows: we must proceed in a very firm and clear manner along the path of transforming Armenia into a country that meets EU standards’, he said. ‘When we meet the standards, we have two options: either we are accepted as an EU member, or we are not’.
Pashinyan said that even should the EU refuse Armenia’s membership, Armenia would still become a ‘modern state aligned with European standards’.
He then touched on Armenia’s membership in the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), saying that his government was ‘fully aware that we cannot simultaneously be a member’ of both blocs, but then claimed there was ‘space’ for Armenia to remain an EAEU member.
‘Therefore, for as long as compatibility is possible, we will continue to remain an EAEU member. When incompatibility becomes inevitable, we will make a decision together with the citizens of Armenia, based on the free expression of the will of the people of the Republic of Armenia’, he said.
Russia and the EAEU have repeatedly warned that Armenia’s EU aspirations were incompatible with its EAEU membership.
According to RFE/RL, on 10 January, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk said that Russia considered Armenia’s adoption of the bill greenlighting its EU aspirations as the ‘beginning of Armenia’s withdrawal from the EAEU’.
‘The Russian Federation will build its economic policy towards Armenia taking this circumstance into account’, he continued.
