Nikol Pashinyan: We are interested in Armenia’s maximum effective engagement in EAEU

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Kazakhstan to take part in the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council’s fifth jubilee session, has reiterated his government’s strong interest to ensure Armenia’s maximum effective engagement in different EAEU institutions.

Addressing the participants of the event held in the country’s capital, he also promised to invest the best possible efforts “towards improving the cooperation mechanisms and securing the four fundamental freedoms”.

He added that Armenia, as a country currently chairing the common economic bloc, “attaches a special significance to expanding the external economic ties”. “We are committed to effectively complete the negotiations with Singapore, Serbia, Egypt, Israel and India. The agreement with Iran has already been ratified by the National Assembly of Armenia.”

Pashinyan added that the topic was addressed also in the course of his recent visit to Beijing (China), where he discussed the signing of a possible cooperation deal with the country’s president and prime minister. “It is my pleasure to emphasize the progress in the negotiations with Singapore - even though those negotiations focus in essence on three basic areas: goods, services and investments.

“With the Free Trade Area Agreement talks practically over now and the processes over an Agreement on Services and Goods being in their pre-final round, I find that it is important to step up the efforts to achieve the signing of the Singapore agreements as early as this year,” Pashinyan said, announcing also his plan to visit the country in July to negotiate the rapid conclusion of the deal.

As another important trend, the premier highlighted the country’s active engagement in the EAEU digital agenda. “We attach a special importance to the groups tasked with creation of special legal ‘regulatory basin’ regimes, electronic document exchange, digital transport corridors, as well as digital development centers,” he added.

The premier expressed hope that the dynamic development of capacity-building will boost the cooperation further in the sector, creating a business-friendly environment to make the member states economically more competitive. He said that he also expects an increased turnover and exchange of services both across the economic bloc and in the trade relations with third countries.

“The formation of a single electric energy market across the Union will allow the member states to develop the cooperation based on the principles of equal rights, mutual benefits and fair competition, relying on the economic interests of electric energy manufacturers and consumers,” he said, adding that Armenia also hails the signing of protocols proposing changes to the EAEU Treaty (to revise the methodology of interstate electric energy transfer considering the specificities of Armenia and Kyryzstan’s accession to the bloc).

“The changes in the methodology will help develop the principles of planning, defining and coordinating the volumes of electric power supply. They will also help define the principles of cooperation among the system operators in the member states and third countries,” Pashinyan added.

According to a press release by the Armenian Government, the meeting in Nursultan focused basically on the key areas of the EAEU’s 2018 economic cooperation and the major trends of the 2019-2020.
economic planning among the member states.