During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Yerevan is interested in further deepening relations with Russia.
“We are interested in further deepening our relations with the Russian Federation,” Pashinyan said during the meeting.
At the same time, the prime minister said Armenia had abandoned the idea of holding a referendum on membership in the European Union, formalizing the decision through a corresponding law.
Pashinyan’s statement highlights two directions at the same time. He spoke about Armenia’s interest in deepening relations with Russia, while also informing Putin at the same meeting that the idea of holding a referendum on EU membership had been abandoned. These two points show that the issue is not limited to a single foreign policy topic, but concerns Yerevan’s current positions on different directions.
The statement about abandoning the referendum idea is also notable because Pashinyan referred to the adoption of a corresponding law. In other words, this is not simply a political statement, but a decision enshrined in law. At the same time, the willingness to deepen relations with Russia was presented as Armenia’s interest, which is important to consider when assessing the statement as a whole.
