Our world is not bipolar, it’s not that black and white, and Armenia’s foreign policy is based on consolidation of the partnerships for the integrity of our national security architecture, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in an interview to BBC’s Hard Talk.
“We have extensive relations with Russia, allied relations with Russia, that is a very important dimension of our foreign policy, we work together in the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Equally the European Union is an extremely important partner and a security supplier to Armenia and to the region. And equally the United States is a very important partner to Armenia…,” he said.
Asked whether Armenia is trying to ride two horses, Mnatsakanyan said: “There’s no contradiction. The European Union has not been building relations with Armenia in a way that it would insist that you have to have relations only in this dimension without other dimensions, since our biggest challenge and a very important priority in our foreign policy is not to build relations with one partner at the expense of the other. This is a very difficult act, but this is what is required for our national security.”
Stephen Sackur claimed if Armenia stays wedded to Putin’s Russia and the Eurasian Union, the new government is “going to probably continue many of the practices of the old regimes in Armenia”.
“I think you are making the same mistake: you are trying to see geopolitics in Armenian revolution. What happened in Armenia was strictly an Armenian matter. The revolution was a revolution of values, the revolution was about democracy, about Human Rights, about the rule of law. This is what concerns Armenia, this is what we need for our country, this is what we are reacting to the mandate of the public, that there is no geopolitics in our revolution,” Mnatsakanyan said.
“That’s a view that has been expressed and doesn’t necessarily need to be shared. Because for us the Eurasian Economic Union is a 200 million market, in which we have access, and which we as members, we are also party and participants of training the regulatory rules in the economic union, and we are participating in that. But it is not at the expense of what we are doing with the European Union. And with the European Union we have a very important relationship, value based relationship. We have a very important agreement - the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with European Union, which has very significant political part, the justice part, sectoral reforms part.
We are not staying with Moscow, we are not staying with Brussels, we are not staying with Washington, or anyone else. We are staying only in Yerevan, only for the interest of Armenia and that requires a very difficult act but this is for the security, for the interest of Armenia. The national interests of Armenia is what we are driven with. And this is what we are rejecting entirely, rejecting the bipolar world in this way or that way. And what we are also rejecting: do not judge our democracy by our geopolitical, you know, choices, because our geopolitical choices are very complex, they are very, you know, in integrity and we have a very good understanding from our partners whether it is with Russia, whether it is with European Union, or it is with United States and this is working out.”
