The outgoing 2017 year in Armenia's foreign and domestic policy can be called stable. Armenia has fully completed the cycle of its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union by adopting the law "On the Customs Code." The adoption of the Customs Code fixes the full-fledged membership in this economic association. According to official data, economic growth reached 7% in the last 11 months, which demonstrates an improvement in Armenia's external conjuncture.
The problem of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains another important pillar of its foreign policy. There have been no major changes in this issue, but since the second half of 2017, there have been no major clashes on the line of contact between the parties in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian experts give a positive assessment to it.
Observers also positively assess the last meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, who agreed to continue efforts aimed at strengthening the ceasefire regime.
The signing of the agreement on Armenia's comprehensive and expanded partnership with the European Union is seen as a success of foreign policy. It is important that Armenia remained in Russia's zone of influence, both economic and military-political, although it established a high level of partner relations with the EU.
The most important event of the year was the parliamentary election on April 2, which was a victory for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia. Only one political force did not agree with the results of the election - the Armenian National Congress opposition party, which unsuccessfully tried to challenge the results of the parliamentary election in the Constitutional Court.
An important feature of the outgoing year was the marginalization of the internal political field. There is practically no parliamentary opposition left in the country. It proposes no serious political initiatives, limiting itself to theatrical and operatic demands, such as the need for Armenia to withdraw from the Eurasian Economic Union.
