Armenia may not participate in EAEU summits, but it is not ready to withdraw from it - expert

Armenia may not participate in any EAEU summit, but it is not ready to stop cooperation within the framework of the organisation or withdraw from it. Nikita Mendkovich, head of the Eurasian Analytical Club, told RIA Novosti.

‘Armenia may hypothetically not participate in some summit, but for now, Yerevan is not ready to withdraw from the EAEU, to stop co-operation. Despite all the unfriendly steps dictated by Pashinyan's ties with the West, he realises that this will cause too quick an economic and possibly even military catastrophe for the republic. He will continue to co-operate with the EAEU and the CSTO,’ Mendkovich said.

According to the expert, the dialogue that took place at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council between Belarusian President Lukashenko and Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan is ‘working off a number’ in connection with the West's demands, as Pashinyan cannot withdraw from the organization, so he creates scandalous situations.

‘Including Pashinyan so did not arrive at the last CSTO summit. Now he is apparently preparing the ground to repeat the same with the Eurasian Union,’ Mendkovich concluded.

On Thursday, Pashinyan said that Yerevan has no objection to the meeting of the EAEU Supreme Economic Council in Minsk in 2025, but warned in advance that the Armenian delegation would take part in the meeting via videoconference. This was followed by a verbal altercation between the President of Belarus and the Armenian Prime Minister.

The relations between Yerevan and Minsk have recently cooled considerably. Tension between the officials of the two countries arose after the Belarusian president voiced his assessment of the results of the Karabakh war. Pashinyan later said that the Belarusian leader had actually admitted to providing assistance to Azerbaijan and banned officials from travelling to Belarus as long as Alexander Lukashenko remains president there. The foreign policy departments of the two countries even exchanged notes in June. In August, after another statement by Lukashenko, the building of the Belarusian embassy in Yerevan was thrown with tomatoes and potatoes.

Reprinted from https://am.sputniknews.ru/