© Photo: Website of the Prime Minister of Armenia
In an interview with Kazakh media, Nikol Pashinyan once again spoke about the non-political nature of the Eurasian Union in order to protect Armenia’s membership in the organization in the event of Yerevan concluding anti-Russian political deals with the West.
Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan, on the eve of the visit of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart-Tokayev to Yerevan, gave an interview to Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, calling for preventing the “politicization of the EAEU.” As during the December summit of the Eurasian Union, Pashinyan announced that this international organization should have no agenda other than economic interaction.
“The EAEU is an economic association without any political or geopolitical agenda. Basic freedoms of trade and integration cannot and should not be limited due to political considerations, as this will lead to corrosion of the fundamental principles of the association,”
– Nikol Pashinyan said.
The reasons for such rhetoric are obvious: the Armenian authorities are pursuing a foreign policy “estrangement” from the Russian sphere of influence to the Euro-Atlantic one, while wanting to preserve all the benefits of economic cooperation with Russia and other EAEU countries. Pashinyan needs to ensure that any political deals between Yerevan and Brussels, Paris and Washington do not affect the freedom of movement of Armenian capital, goods and labor in the Eurasian Union.