“The September aggression against Armenia highlighted the number 2022,” announced Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the preliminary discussions on implementing the 2022 state budget.
According to him, the military-political situation in the region continues to be quite tense, “It is connected with our complex relations and global processes, the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Now we are receiving very alarming news from the events taking place on the border of Iran and Afghanistan, etc.”
Pashinyan noted that the government has adopted a peace agenda and strategy and is doing everything possible to implement it. He reminded that the next round of negotiations in the trilateral format of Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia took place in Moscow last week. The Prime Minister revealed some details, “I would like to inform you that one of the topics of the discussion was related to the humanitarian situation established in Nagorno-Karabakh and the illegal closing of the Lachin Corridor. We have also discussed this topic with our Russian colleagues, and I cannot say that the results are satisfactory. We must record that this is a very painful situation,” he said.
Pashinyan reminded that he had occasion to say that the closure of the Lachin corridor took place in front of and in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, which is also worrying, “We will continue discussions on the settlement of this situation, including with our Russian partners.”
He said that the issue of opening regional communications was also discussed in Moscow. According to the Prime Minister, Armenia is ready for this, but it should happen based on the statement of November 9, 2020, “We have emphasized that we are ready for the re-opening of communications very quickly under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries. We are trying to work on the opening of railway infrastructures. We are willing and interested in the opening of regional communications.”
Pashinyan noted that Armenia shows great flexibility in this matter, “The principle I said is about the opening of communications under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries of the region, and I think we have a quite flexible and constructive position there, we are ready to really go for the opening of those communications.”
He stressed that the solution of this issue does not depend only on Armenia.
