Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 10
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
The Armenia-EU agreement has every chance of signing and a small chance of success. This is not a paradox. This agreement can be successful only in case of successful implementation. However, it will not be done and here are the following reasons below.
Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan has recently received head of the EU mission in Armenia, ambassador Peter Svitalsky and discussed the Armenia-EU cooperation issues, as well as the new Armenia-EU treaty.
"I would like to reaffirm that the EU, represented by all its structures, has been and remains one of Armenia's most important foreign policy partners," Karapetyan stressed, but forgot to warn that Armenia may let its partner down if Moscow demands, as it already happened once.
Yerevan was expected to sign the association agreement and free trade agreement with the EU at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in 2013. However, two months before November, when the agreement was to be signed, Armenia announced its intention to join the Customs Union and participate in the Eurasian integration.
Armenia has joined the Eurasian Economic Union since January 2015 and has begun to hold negotiations on an agreement with the EU, which this year must come to a logical conclusion.
While speaking about the current stage of cooperation, in his turn, Ambassador Svitalsky, said that significant events such as the signing of the new Armenia-EU agreement are ahead and it will become a new page of cooperation.
However, the ambassador did not mention all experts’ opinion. According to the experts, the new agreement is much weaker than the one which was not signed. One of the main differences of the current agreement from the previous one is that the association agreement contained a provision on a free trade zone between Armenia and the EU. However, the current framework document does not have this item.
That is why, Moscow this time has not hampered Armenia in this issue. It is obvious that Yerevan, as before, notifies Moscow of any contacts with the EU.
Meanwhile, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan left for Moscow in August to personally settle the recent issues. Afterwards, Armenia refused from participating in NATO exercises in Georgia.
It is not a secret that before concluding an agreement with the EU, Yerevan has thoroughly coordinated this issue with Moscow.
However, Moscow's mood is also unpredictable, like the weather. So, despite the fact that Yerevan initialed this agreement in March, at the last moment Russia may change its mind, and then the signing will be postponed again, as it happened in 2013. Then it will be testified once again that Armenia is an unreliable and Kremlin-dependent partner.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency’s Russian news service