PreferredI want to confirm that I will participate in the Victory Day event in Moscow. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during the question-and-answer session with the government at the National Assembly of Armenia Wednesday.
“I have accepted the invitation of the Russian president to participate in the events. We [i.e. Armenia] have publicly stated that we have adopted a balanced and balancing foreign policy, and it does not include at all that we will build our relations in one direction at the expense of our other relations. Moreover, the logic of that policy has never been that we will not have visits to Russia, that we will not develop and deepen relations with Russia.
To be honest, those comments are not very comprehensible to me. Of course, these events are very important in the context of the victory achieved in World War II. But matters are discussed at these meetings also, including matters on the bilateral agenda. It would not be right to miss such opportunities. And even more so, I do not believe also that these criticisms or remarks are appropriate,” the Armenian PM added.
And asked whether bilateral or other format meetings were already planned within the framework of that visit to Moscow, Pashinyan replied: “The event is dedicated first of all to May 9 [Victory Day anniversary], and in some sense it is not a formal summit. There will be contacts, of course, but to what extent these contacts will be formalized, I am not sure because we will be working under a rather tight schedule.”
