Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave an interview to Euronews TV, Armenian Government’s Press office reports.
Euronews – Do you think that the fact the West has been playing a bigger role here, the United States and Europe, has antagonized a more traditional regional power broker, Russia, or the other way around, the fact that Russia is more involved in Ukraine has given more space for other players to come and try to help you and Azerbaijan to find a common ground.
Prime Minister NIkol Pashinyan – Those episodes do occur, when we witness, so to speak, scenes of geopolitical jealousy. But I am glad to say that now the emphasis seems to have changed somewhat, and that change is that we hear from different sides statements that any platform that is going to be favorable for the peace process, they would welcome such platforms. And this is very important.
Let me remind you that this international competition seems to not be linked to us directly, because you know the platform of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs was active and it was created for addressing the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. But since February 24, 2021, the Co-chairs simply stopped interacting, some of them decided they do not want to interact with the others. What you say or what I call geopolitical jealousy emerged after that date. Before that such a genre did not exist. But on the other hand, it would of course be more productive if the international partners bring together their efforts. There have recently been signs that, nevertheless, they are somewhat interested in this latter logic.
Euronews – President Vladimir Putin has invited you and the President of Azerbaijan for another round of talks in Moscow. What would you say about Russia’s influence in this region today?
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan – As for the invitation, I have to emphasize that I have not received any invitation yet. As to Russia’s presence, of course, by virtue of the events in Ukraine, the interest of not just Russia, but also other geopolitical actors towards our region has been declining, because in practice the whole international attention is focused on Ukraine. And that is a factor.
But Russia is present in our region, in Nagorno Karabakh, in the Republic of Armenia, but the EU is also present. The EU civilian mission on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a new factor. The mission was supposed to be on both sides, initially that was the understanding, which was reached in Prague on October 6, 2022, during the quadrilateral statement. That was when the EU mission first came to this region. Initially it seemed that we had agreement to have the EU mission present on both sides of the border, but for whatever reasons Azerbaijan withdrew from it.
