“My government warmly welcomes the European Commission’s [recent] decision to recommend the European Council to open accession talks with Moldova and Ukraine and to grant candidate status to Georgia,” Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said late on Monday. “This decision is welcomed not only by the government of Armenia but also people of Armenia, who also have European aspirations.”
Yerevan is committed to “coming closer to the European Union to the extent the EU will deem it possible,” Mirzoyan added in a speech delivered during a meeting in Brussels of the foreign ministers of EU member states and five ex-Soviet republics involved in the 27-nation bloc’s Eastern Partnership program.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed that commitment when he addressed the European Parliament in October. He stopped short of announcing plans to seek Armenia’s eventual membership in the EU.
In his speech, Pashinian also accused Moscow of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to topple him. A Russian official responded by saying that the Armenian premier is helping the West “turn Armenia into another Ukraine.”
Mirzoyan and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met in North Macedonia late last month as a team of EU officials wrapped up a visit to Yerevan during which they explored ways of bringing Armenia closer to the bloc.
Borrell also met with Mirzoyan in Brussels earlier on Monday. He said they had a “good exchange of views … on concrete ways to enhance EU-Armenia relations” but did not elaborate.