Armenia has never been far from the West - Pashinyan

ArmInfo. Armenia has never been far from the West.  RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in  an interview with British media representatives, answering a question about the risks of rapprochement with the West against the backdrop of the neighborhood with authoritarian states such as Russia, Iran,  Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan answered, in particular: "Thank you, but I need to clarify  some things about your question, because listing the countries that  surround us is not correctly reflected, because our neighboring  countries are Iran, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan.  

We do not share a direct border with the Russian Federation, but of  course the Russian Federation is a serious and significant player in  the South Caucasus region. As to what you said about coming closer  with the West, actually we were never far from the West.  As for the  numerous examples that after the 2018 People's, non-violent, velvet  revolution our relationship with the West has come much closer,  before the revolution Armenia and the EU had signed the Comprehensive  and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, and the responsibility of  implementing that agreement fell on our Government.  

Of course our achievements in the field of democracy have created an  objective reality where our relationship can develop dynamically. But  if we step aside for a moment from the current media stream, nothing  unpredictable is actually happening, especially that after the 2018  revolution we said that democracy for us is not a policy adopted by  virtue of circumstances, it is a strategy for us. There is another  circumstance that is significant and that circumstance is the  diversification of foreign and security relations.  

But to be very direct and sincere, it's not a cause, it's a  consequence, because we are diversifying our foreign relations, but  we are not the only ones doing that. Practically, around the world,  you would not find any actor which is not diversifying its foreign  relations, even those who prior to 2022 thought they were  sufficiently diversified.  Everyone is diversifying their foreign  relations, and Armenia could not step aside this new trend. As to  further rapprochement with the European Union, I said in my speech  before the European Parliament that the Republic of Armenia is ready  to be as close with the European Union as the European Union sees it  possible.  

At the moment we seem to be moving in this direction, because, very  importantly, this is happening publicly, this is a public process.  Especially after the trilateral meeting in Brussels on April 5, there  have been allegations that we and the EU have reached some "secret  deals". But no, transparency is of utmost importance for us. Our  agendas have been made public, the results have been made public, and  we do see, to an extent, coming closer with the EU, but I am not  seeing anything extraordinary happening there, because that's a  course that is not newly adopted by the Republic of Armenia," said  the head of the Armenian Cabinet.