Armenian parliamentarians conduct closed-door meetings with Russian, US, EU diplomats

Members of the Armenian National Assembly’s Standing Committees on Foreign Relations, and European Integration have recently held closed-door meetings with US Ambassador John Heffern, Head of the EU Mission to Armenia, Ambassador Trajan Hristea, and Russian Ambassador Ivan Volynkin.

In comments to Tert.am, Tevan Poghosyan, an MP of the opposition Heritage party who is represented in the Foreign Relations Committee, addressed the objectives and principal trends of the meetings. “The organization of meetings in any format is, in general, commendable. There are open and closed hearings and parliamentary speeches; different parliaments have their mechanisms, and because Armenia is now in a process of very active debates on policy vectors, [hesitating between]European integration, the Customs Union and the possible continuation of the [EU] Association Agreement … there are various developments in the region, so September had an active start,” he said.

Poghosyan added that the committee also conducts meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Defense.

Asked whether the meetings with the Russian and US ambassadors have focused on Armenia’s Customs Union membership issue and the so-called continuation of the Association Agreement process, the opposition MP refrained from any comments, noting that the discussions were closed-door.

Speaking to Tert.am, Head of the European Integration Committee Naira Zohrabyan (Prosperous Armenia faction) commented on the meeting with Ambassador Hristea.

“It was a very effective meeting, and I got the answers to many questions that weren’t clear to me before,” she said.

Asked whether the EU will sign any agreement with Armenia or insist nonetheless that the word “association” be retained, Zohrabaan answered, “What has been negotiated over the course of four years is not possible to sign; so we cannot exclude the DCFTA [Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement] from the constituent documents and sign only the Association [Agreement]. But the EU is ready to work on the new document, and a spokesperson for [Enlargement Commissioner] Stefan Fule has said that too. So there is a willingness on the part of EU to work on the document.”