Previously, I was reading domestic Armenian comments on our balanced and balancing foreign policy and was surprised. And now I am reading international comments and am surprised. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during the question-and-answer session with the government, in the National Assembly of Armenia Wednesday.

“I once said that partnership should not be confused with marriage. After every visit, comments are made that need clarification. Previously, we had talked about our search for building a new nuclear reactor. I understood from the reactions of the international press that our position is either not well explained, or that clarification simply did not reach the addressees,” said Pashinyan.

“We [i.e. Armenia] have made a strategic decision that our next [nuclear] reactor will be a small modular one. With whom will we build it? We have asked all our partners who have such technology. We asked everyone: ‘Would you mind if we discussed this topic with others?’ Everyone said, ‘no,’” noted the Armenian PM.

“When I go to Moscow, everyone says, ‘That’s it, it will be built with Moscow.’ We sign a memorandum with the US and go to Moscow, they say, ‘They signed the memorandum, why did they go to Moscow?’ We go to China, they say, ‘We didn’t understand.’ We have said very transparently that at the moment we want to receive proposals—and we have such conversations with the US, and with Russia, and with China, and with France. We do not put a political component, we say, in commercial terms, we should look at which proposal is beneficial to us, and make a choice accordingly,” Pashinyan stated.

“We have a dialogue on this topic with five partners—and these conversations are practical. Our working groups visit or will visit various places, to see, study, find out. On the other hand, we should make a decision and sign a contract in the next one to two years—and it will not have a geopolitical and foreign policy context,” the Armenian premier said.

“We want a small nuclear reactor, and we want it at the best price, with the safest technology, and also in the shortest possible investment buyback period. Please, no one should look for geopolitics under this,” concluded Nikol Pashinyan.