In politics, in particular, when talking about Armenia-Russia relations, we should pay maximum attention to wording and not be guided by simplistic assessments. Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan said this, answering the question that recently it seemed that Armenia's foreign policy vector was moving towards European integration, but due to the recent visit of Armenia’s Prime Minister to Russia, the impression was created that it is moving towards Moscow.
Referring to the grievances of the Armenian side, which are related to the Russian side, Mirzoyan noted: “We have never hidden that there were a number of issues that we spoke about, which primarily relate to bilateral Russian expectations, as well as Armenia's expectations within the framework of the CSTO, and the justification or non-justification of those expectations. These problems existed, we have seen these problems both in the cases when the borders of the Republic of Armenia were violated and the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia came under occupation, and in the cases of the activity or inactivity of the peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, and many others, including certain in economic matters.
Did we have these problems now, did we have these expectations from CSTO? Yes, we have. Did we raise it as a result of not meeting those expectations? Yes, we spoke up, we talked about increasing the effectiveness of the CSTO several years ago, and at some point, due to one or another circumstance, we kept our involvement in the CSTO at the level that we considered adequate for what is going on in the CSTO or the activities carried out by the CSTO,” he said, then reminded once again that the borders of Armenia were violated, however, “the CSTO did not rush to protect our borders.”
As for Armenia’s Prime Minister's decision to participate in the EAEU summit, Mirzoyan emphasized that the EAEU has never failed to meet the same expectations as in the case of the CSTO.
“I think the EAEU continues to work effectively in the case of Armenia,” he said.
