European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced it when they met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Brussels earlier in the day. The EU is to provide Armenia with $270 million over the next four years while the U.S. will allocate $65 million this year.
One of the declared objectives of the aid package is the “diversification” of Armenia’s foreign trade which totaled $20.7 billion in 2023. Russia accounted for over 35 percent of it, compared with the EU’s 13 percent share.
“This is not the kind of sum that could allow us to bring about structural changes [in foreign trade,]” Artur Khachatrian, a parliament deputy from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “More importantly, it’s not that we have goods that could be sold in the European Union instead of the [Russian-led] Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).”
Khachatrian said that the promised Western funding will hardly convince the Armenian government government to leave the EEU or even the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). He speculated that Blinken and von der Leyen may have urged Pashinian to take such “drastic steps.” Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian insisted on Thursday that the West is not pressuring Armenia to leave the Russian-led blocs.
Russia has long been the main export market for Armenian food products, beverages and other goods. Last year, it generated more than 40 percent of the South Caucasus country’s total export revenue worth $8.4 billion.
The continuing deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations and Armenia’s ongoing reorientation towards the West are raising growing questions about local manufacturers’ continued access to the vast Russian market. Pashinian and other government have urged them to look for other export markets.
Sargis Khandanian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, said that the aid package announced in Brussels is only “the beginning of a process” during which Yerevan will be able to seek “additional assistance” from the EU and the U.S.
“I think that we shouldn’t think only about this instrument,” he said. “This [latest aid allocation] will have tangible effects in the near future on improving our quality standards and upgrading certain sectors of our economy.”