Narek Karapetyan: Normalization with neighbors must not be a one-way  street

ArmInfo. Regulating relations with neighbors is crucial, but we don't like that everything is happening unilaterally: we are buying, we are giving,  and there's no reciprocity from the other side. That's the whole issue. Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the "In Our Way" movement,  shared this viewpoint during a press conference on January 20, in reponse  to a question about the recent  developments in trad with  Azerbaijan.

Addressing the recent shipments of Azerbaijani gasoline into Armenia,  Karapetyan argued that such commercial deals should not exist in a  vacuum. Instead, they must be part of a comprehensive settlement that  prioritizes humanitarian and security concerns.  "There are higher  priority issues: our prisoners of war, and the safety of our citizens  who wish to return to their homeland," he noted. He clarified that he  does not oppose trade in principle, but only if Armenia is able to  export its own products to Azerbaijan in comparable volumes.

At journalists' request, Karapetyan also commented on the the  preliminary trade lists recently exchanged between Yerevan and Baku.  He questioned the logic behind several items Karapetyan noted the  irony of Armenia offering agricultural goods to Azerbaijan, a country  already recognized as a dominant regional producer with significantly  lower production costs due to cheaper energy.  He highlighted the  inclusion of aluminum foil in the export list, pointing out that  Azerbaijan is an aluminum producer and already has plans for a foil  manufacturing plant in Sumgait. Karapetyan noted that the maximum  potential growth for Armenia's "Armenal" foil plant is estimated at  only $5-10 million, suggesting that such exports would have a  negligible impact compared to the strategic scale of energy imports  from Azerbaijan.

Recall,  on January 11, A train consisting of 18 wagons carrying 979  tons of AI-92 gasoline was dispatched from the Balajari station  toward Boyuk-Kesik, destined for Armenia.  On January 9, 2026, a  larger shipment of 48 wagons was sent, totaling 2,698 tons of fuel.  This included 1,742 tons of AI-95 gasoline and 956 tons of diesel.   Previously, on December 18, 2025, an initial delivery of 1,220 tons  of AI-95 gasoline was successfully completed.  These shipments are  the direct result of a formal agreement reached on November 28, 2025,  in Gabala, during a meeting between the Deputy Prime Ministers of  Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mher Grigoryan and Shahin Mustafayev.  Moreover, last November, grain from Kazakhstan and Russia was also  delivered to Armenia via Azerbaijan.