The impression is that it has become the Armenian authorities' habit to give promises on accession to all possible international organizations, Alexander Arzumanyan, MP from the Heritage Faction, ex-Foreign Minister of Armenia, said in Parliament when commenting on Armenian Prime Minister's recent statement that Armenia wants to become an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Arzumanyan is bewildered at the fact that the Government's program adopted in early 2013 points out further strengthening of cooperation with the EU and development of cooperation with the CSTO as the priorities of Armenia's foreign policy. "The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is not mentioned in the program at all. Subsequently, if the Government's program has been amended, the Parliament should be informed of it and should approve the new program", said Arzumanyan. He added that the SCO focuses special attention on the fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism. In this context, the MP said that a number of SCO member countries, for instance, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan consider the Karabakh conflict as a separatist movement.
In response, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said that the matter concerns an observer status in the SCO. As regards the Karabakh conflict, he said that the SCO had not adopted a single resolution directed against Armenia's interests yet.