Armenia should initial the EU Association Agreement, because the republic will benefit from that from both economic and military-strategic perspectives, Ara Papyan, Head of the Modus Vivendi Center, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
He stressed that the upcoming initialing of the Armenia-EU Association Agreement has caused tension in the Armenian-Russian relations, and the recent big Azeri-Russian arms deal is the direct evidence of that. Papyan stressed that strategic partnership implies certain commitments for both sides, and Armenia is often deprived of the West's support due to the strategic partnership with Russia. In the meantime, he thinks that Russia is unlikely to withdraw its military base from Armenia after the initialing of the Association Agreement, because the presence of the military base in Armenia is beneficial first of all to Russia.
To note, the initialing of the Armenia-EU Association Agreement is expected to take place in Vilnius in November 2013.