Armenian Minister for Economy Vagram Avanesyan said at the Armenian-Belarusian intergovernmental commission yesterday that both the EU and the Customs Union were equally important for Armenia. Andrey Smirnov, Vice President of the Eurasian Cooperation Development Foundation, that Russia and the EU (mainly Germans and Polacks) were insisting on Armenia choosing one of them. Being part of the EU free trade zone and the Customs Union (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus) is out of option.
Smirnov believes that Avanesyan was not very honest about calling the structures equally important. The documents Armenia will sign with the EU at the Vilnius summir of the Eastern Partnership in November have not been published yet. The expert added that Russia and Armenia had a trade turnover of $3 billion, making Russia its main trade partner.
Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, said that the choice between the EU and the Customs Union was not a big deal, because Armenia was not deeply integrated in any of the two. But the choice will have to be made in the future, according to the official. Safrasyan pointed out that the text of the association agreement had not been published.
The expert does not believe in the model of Armenia developing military cooperation with Russia and economic with the EU. He called the defense issue a more significant field of cooperation for Armenia.
