Armenia ruling power lawmaker: Expectations from April 5 meeting in Brussels were overblown

For unknown reasons, people had divided life into two parts: before and after the 5th of the month; expectations were overblown. It was just a very important meeting, but to turn that meeting into an apocalypse and to say that there was no life before it, it will be after the meeting or vice versa is wrong. Davit Arushanyan, an MP from the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction and of the National Assembly of Armenia, told Armenian News-NEWS.am this on Monday—and talking about the expectations and results of the meeting that was held in Brussels on April 5 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Arushanyan emphasized that he has not heard such overblown expectations from any lawmaker of the Armenian authorities, and the expectations generated among people were due to the desire of some political forces to present accusations to the Armenian authorities in the event that the expected results are not achieved.

Asked whether the 270 million euros that the EU will give and the 65 million dollars that the US will give to Armenia are comparable to the amount Armenia receives from Russia, Davit Arushanyan said that he does not see the need for comparison because the money given by Europe has nothing to do with Armenia’s economic relations with Russia.

"It’s not the Armenian banks that if you took a loan from one, then you are burdened and you cannot borrow from another. They are unrelated processes. I have nothing to say. The job of economists is to count numbers. But are those numbers comparable? Are they numbers that are related to each other? The figures would be comparable if, for example, Blinken had said [to Armenia]: ‘Leave the EAEU [i.e. the Eurasian Economic Union], so that we can give 270 million [euros to you]," explained the Armenian ruling force MP

Speaking about the recent criticism of Russia by the Armenian authorities and the reaction of the EU, Arushanyan said that the Armenian authorities  do not criticize Russia, but simply record the facts, and do not do it to get any assessment from the EU.

"We [i.e. Armenia] are not guided by the interests of other countries, we are guided by the interests of Armenia. The interests of Armenia coincide with whichever country in which domain, we will go in that direction; the EAEU, the CSTO, the EU. Armenia will go in the direction of the organization with which the interests coincide more. The EAEU and the EU are both economic organizations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Armenia] continues its work. I don't want to comment at this moment on what direction we are going. Our direction is Armenia's interests. We are neither pro-Russian, nor pro-European, nor pro-American; we are pro-Armenian, and all our actions are aimed at Armenia's interests," added Arushanyan.

And to the question of how Armenia’s companies whose products are sold entirely in the Russian market will diversify their markets, he responded that they will try to find new markets.

"The [Armenia ] state organizes meetings with [Armenia’s] businessmen, and it has always done everything so that [Armenia’s] businessmen can find a new market as easily as possible. It has nothing to do with the current situation, it is done to be safer in general. If a plant is not dependent on one market, it will feel more secure, as it has the opportunity to export to various markets. We [i.e. Armenia] are an EAEU member, we are not looking for alternative options to not export to EAEU, we just don't want the lion's share to depend on one market, we want to have shares in various markets," said the Armenian ruling power lawmaker.