Member of the RPA parliamentary faction, chairman of “European Integration” NGO Karen Bekaryan touches upon the recent Russian-American tensions.
“Of course, in all of this, first and foremost, we are interested in the impact of this on the settlement of the Armenian and Artsakh issues, considering that both of the “conflicting parties” are directly involved in the Minsk Group process”.
“First, let’s mention, that there might be two separate approaches related to the settlement of the issue. First, according to previous years’ experience, if we look at recent years, there have been similar cases before, tensions in Russian-American relations, and not only once, but these tensions were not “projected” on the joint work of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
Moreover, this has been the format where the parties have successfully cooperated, have managed to work together despite the disagreements on other issues, and we have fixed that. In other words, experience shows that there was no such “projection” and immediate impact.
And if we approach the question mere theoretically, of course, this danger cannot be excluded, as such. We pray not to have that impact in this case either, otherwise it may have a negative impact on the negotiation process”.
“Especially since there is no progress in the negotiation process”.
“Yes, and the Minsk Group will face serious difficulties if this component enters the negotiation process too.
As to Armenia, US-Russia contradictions, even if they have no direct influence on us, naturally, derivative problems will arise. The toughening of sanctions against Russia cannot bypass Armenia, considering the strategic nature of Armenian-Russian relations, the EAEU processes, the dependence of our economy on the processes taking place in the Russian market.
This is the other side of the issue, which has been repeatedly mentioned too, we have that experience too, as such, and of course, we will not succeed in avoiding these derivative impacts.
Third, I would say the main issue is related to Iran. We refer to the West-Russia, or rather to the United States-Russia relations, but we forget about the tension between the United States and Iran. Taking into consideration our relations with Iran, development trends, on which the President of the Republic of Armenia touched upon in an interview with Iranian “Irna” agency, there might be some derivative impacts here too.
Lilit POGHOSYAN