Germany is highly interested in Armenia’s rapprochement with Europe. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz assured this during a joint press conference with visiting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan—and responding to a question about whether Germany is ready to support the creation of new opportunities for Armenia’s deeper integration with the EU, including in the economic, energy, and institutional domains, Armenpress reports.

“We [i.e. Germany] have a strong interest in Armenia’s rapprochement with Europe. We have agreements on specific projects, and Germany will help Armenia in also a number of projects in the domain of energy supply in order to achieve greater independence in this domain,” Merz said. The German chancellor noted that he and the Armenian premier spoke very concretely about this, reached the relevant agreements, and that these agreements have also been put into written form.

There is a bilateral agreement to work closely together in the coming years. “After [Armenia’s] peace with Azerbaijan, there is a historic chance to put this process on a broad, stable, and European basis,” Merz said. According to him, Europe also has great appeal for the countries of the South Caucasus.