The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized on Thursday Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s upcoming trilateral meeting with top U.S. and European Union officials, saying that it is part of Western efforts to break up Armenia’s alliance with Russia.
The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, dismissed Yerevan’s assurances that the April 5 talks in Brussels between Pashinyan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken an EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are “not directed against any third party.”
“Such events cause concern in Russia because representatives of the U.S. and EU directly tell our partners that their main focus is exclusively against Russia,” Zakharova said in a Telegram post.
“Why official Yerevan pretends not to understand what it is going on is a big question,” she wrote. “After all, before the eyes of the whole world, Armenia is being turned into an instrument for the implementation of extremely dangerous plans of the collective West, which are completely at odds with the fundamental interests of the Armenian people.”
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Moscow already accused Pashinyan’s government last fall of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations in response to its intensifying efforts to reorient Armenia towards the West.
Azerbaijan expressed concern about the Brussels meeting on Wednesday, portraying it as another evidence of the West’s pro-Armenian stance. It claimed that the United States and the EU are thus encouraging Yerevan to take “destabilizing actions” in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, rejected the Azerbaijani criticism. She insisted that Pashinyan, Blinken and von der Leyen will concentrate on ways of helping Armenia develop “capacities in the economic and energy sectors” and cope with “humanitarian issues.”
“Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani side is delaying and undermining the peace process under various artificial pretexts, including by continuously rejecting mediation proposals made by the EU and the U.S.,” added Badalian.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, also dismissed Baku’s claims.
“The focus of this meeting is on economic resilience to help Armenia diversify its trade partnerships and address humanitarian needs,” Miller told reporters. “I fail to see why that would be escalatory or would be of a concern to any country in the world.”