In the conversation with “Aravot”, answering the question of why, however, the political section of the Armenian-EU Association Agreement was not signed, the 1991-92 Slovak foreign minister, now Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Bratislava office, Pavol Demeš, gave evasive answers.
– You know, the EU cooperation differently with the six Eastern Partnership countries. The EU does not consider the Eastern Partnership countries as a single unit. Cooperation with these countries is individual. EU Association Agreement was initialed with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, as these three countries, unlike Armenia, did not announce about their willingness to affiliate to the Eurasian Union. At the same time, there was not word with Belarus and Azerbaijan about the Association. This means that Armenia is a sovereign state, with which the European Union is developing its relations in a way that it thinks would be beneficial to both the EU and Armenia.
– On October 10, it is expected that Armenia will be signing the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty. At the same time, both Armenian and European officials announce about shifting the relations with the EU to a new legal dimensions. It seems Armenia has no clue of how it should be done. Do you see any option, which will enable the EaEU member Armenia to develop the relations with EU?
– It was a new situation, and frankly speaking, the European Union was not ready for it. It would never occur to the EU that Armenia might not be one of the Eastern Partnership countries that will not sign the Association Agreement. Especially, when Armenia made quite a lot of steps for the EU Association, it implemented pretty positive reforms. The fact that the Government of Armenia decided to join the Eurasian Union, immediately changed the political situation, including also opening of a new window to develop relations with EU. EU cannot reject the hand of cooperation and turn away its face. But, naturally, it can no longer be based on previous arrangements. I think, Europe needs time to see how Armenia will develop after affiliation to EaEU, what effect the EaEU membership will have on Armenia’s political and economic systems, how the population will react to all of this, how will Armenia develop in-between the two geopolitical realities, Russia, which has its own ambitions, and the European Union, which prior to Eastern Partnership plans, expressed willingness to assist in Armenia’s transformation. As to how the Armenia-EU future relations would be characterized, by and large, depends on Armenia and the geopolitical developments. We cannot turn a blind eye to the reality that Russia is demonstrating a completely new approach to post-Soviet countries. It was a big surprise for the European Union, especially when after the Vilnius summit, Russia along with political, economic and cultural influence applied also weapons. What is currently going on in Ukraine was a shock for many. Now, the EU’s main task, I think, is to mitigate the situation in Ukraine and regulation of relations with Russia, as the EU – Russia relations, nowadays, remind of a competition. Armenia is located in quite sophisticated and interesting geographical and geopolitical crossroad. Not only the RU-Russia relations, but also the developments in the Middle East, the relations with Turkey, closed borders and so on are competition for Armenia. Quite a sophisticated situation is created in Armenia for the leaders, political leaders, civil society and the public, in general, in the sense that a clarification should be made on one issue: who you are and what you want. Armenia and Armenians have one more peculiarity. It is the Diaspora. You have a great number of influential figures abroad. A new situation is also created for them: how they can be useful under the present situation and promote the development of Armenia.
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Interviewed by Nelly GRIGORYAN
