Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touched upon the Armenian-Iranian relations during the meeting with the Lithuanian-Armenians.
Answering the question about the relations with Iran, the Head of the Government said, “We have warm relations with Iran. President Raisi assumed the office in August 2021, and I also assumed my office in August, following the elections, and we have already met twice. This is a fact showing how much we value our relations. It is not something new that there are certain circles that manage to publish materials in the Iranian press from time to time that Armenia is involved in some conspiracies against Iran. I am confident that our Iranian partners know that the Republic of Armenia has never been and will never be involved in any conspiracy against Iran, because we extremely value those relations and we will never forget that Iran was the “path of life” for Armenia in the early 90s. This is such a firm ground for our relations that rules out any involvement of Armenia in any anti-Iran conspiracy,” Pashinyan said.
“It's another thing that the economic relations between the two countries are hampered by economic sanctions. Not only Armenia, but many other countries in that world have no opportunity to bypass this reality. Armenia will never be involved in any conspiracy against Iran and that’s so obvious that there is no need to even talk about that. Just the opposite, we have major projects with Iran. During our discussions with Mr. Raisi we suggested that they should be accelerated, particularly, the 3rd high-voltage power transmission line is under construction, which is constructed by an Iranian company, and we ask them to do it as soon as possible. We hope to prolong “gas for electricity’’ contract in the future. During the meetings I also suggested that we should return to the issue of the construction of Meghri reservoir and HPP, which I think is very important not only in terms of energy, but also in terms of joint management of water resources’’, Nikol Pashinyan said.
The PM emphasized that in the recent period a long-lasting problem related to Iran has been resolved, which was about the emissions of Agarak copper-molybdenum combine into Aras river. “The issue was constantly raised, and I am glad to note that it has been resolved, because the plant has switched to a closed cycle and does not emit emissions. "GeoProMining”, in the person of which we have a partner, responded to the Government's calls, which allowed us to deepen relations with them’’, the Head of the Government said.
