It is expected that European Union foreign ministers will issue a mandate for starting talks with Armenia at their meeting in Luxembourg next week.
The talks are due over a new agreement between Brussels and Yerevan.
“We expect that next week the European Union will approve the mandate of the European Union’s negotiating team for talks with Armenia on establishing a new legal framework for our relations, between Armenia and the EU,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) on Sunday.
Nalbandian attended a two-day ministerial conference of the International Organization of La Francophonie that was held in Yerevan over the weekend.
France’s Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, who was also in Yerevan to attend the event, also spoke about this matter. He said that the document that is expected to be signed after the talks will enable Armenia to cooperate with the European Union in a format that does not hinder the South Caucasus nation’s membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.
Besides meetings with the president and foreign minister of Armenia, Desir also had conversations with Armenian businessmen and representatives of the country’s civil society.
Richard Giragosian, founding director of the Regional Studies Center, also met with the French minister. He said that Desir was interested in the process of deepening EU-Armenia relations after an association agreement that the parties had been negotiating for more than three years fell through in 2013 followingArmenia’s signing up to the customs union led by Moscow.
He said that Desir’s visit to Yerevan demonstrates the strategic importance that France attaches to Armenia. Giragosian added that the French official was also interested in the domestic processes taking place in Armenia, including constitutional amendments.