Armenian Prime Minister Nikola Pashinyan attended the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit in Moscow on Wednesday. After the summit, Vladimir Putin invited Pashinyan for talks. The relationship between the two countries is currently at a critical point due to Azerbaijan’s raid in September to recapture the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.
After the previous round of hostilities in 2020, Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers, who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh, of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s attack.
Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has denied the accusations, stating that its troops did not have a mandate to intervene. Since then, the two countries have restricted their relations. Pashinyan seeks to strengthen ties with the West and distance Armenia from Moscow-dominated security and economic alliances.
On Wednesday, while Pashinyan was in Moscow, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry declared that the country would stop paying fees to the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-dominated security pact. Armenia had previously suspended its participation in the group to reinforce ties with the European Union and NATO.
Furthermore, Russia was displeased with Armenia’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.
During the meeting, Putin acknowledged that bilateral trade was increasing but added that “some issues concerning security in the region” persist.
“Of course, there are issues not only related to the increase in trade turnover, there are issues related to security in the region, we will not discuss them in open mode now, but there is an opportunity to talk about the entire spectrum of our relations, including security issues in the region, at the EAEU working platform”.
Pashinyan said that “certain issues have piled up since then.“
“Thank you, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich; first of all, let me thank you for the warm hospitality and for organising the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at a high level. The last time we met was in December, during which, of course, there were a lot of issues that needed to be discussed. Of course, we have already discussed the economic sector during the session, and I am sure that now we will discuss the most important issues of bilateral relations, regional issues,“ Prime Minister Pashinyan said.
