Armenia’s accession to Customs Union (CU) and Common Economic Space will not affect the process of the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This was stated by Tatyana Valovaya, the Eurasian Economic Commission Board Member and Minister for Macroeconomics and Principal Directions of Integration.

“As you know, the president of Kazakhstan in his opening speech spoke about Armenia’s preparedness to join the CU and Common Economic Space and mentioned Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As a result of debates, president of Kazakhstan together with other participants of Supreme Economic Council signed a decision approving the roadmap. No other documents have been received from Kazakhstan,” Valovaya said in an interview.

She stressed that CU and Common Economic Space are economic structures. The member states have no plans to create a political union, so Armenia’s accession to Customs Union will not in any way affect the Karabakh peace process.

Armenia is getting closer to the Customs Union very fast, she said. It took less than four months from the first statement of intention to the moment of roadmap  signing. For instance, the roadmap with Kyrgyzstan has been discussed for two years, Tatyana Valovaya added.

“I hope that the interaction between the states, members of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, and Armenia will be very active,” the Minister noted.

Tatyana Valovaya said the roadmap of Armenia’s accession consists of 20 sections and includes 262 events out of which 150 should be carried out by the time of joining the Customs Union. Over 30 seminars and consultations have been held while the roadmap was being drafted.