European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the aid will help the South Caucasus nation increase its “resilience” and “diversify” its economy heavily dependent on Russia.
“We aim to expand cooperation to strengthen Armenia’s resilience, including in key sectors such political reforms, economic development and humanitarian support,” they said in a joint statement with Pashinian issued after the trilateral meeting in Brussels.
The promised funding includes 270 million euros ($291 million) in EU aid which will be provided over the next four years. Von der Leyen described it as a “resilience and growth plan for Armenia” in a statement to the press made just before the talks. In her words, the money will be mostly channeled into Armenian small and medium-sized businesses and “key infrastructure projects.”
“We will invest in making the Armenian economy and society more robust and resistant to shocks,” said the head of the EU’s executive body.
For his part, Blinken announced that Washington will provide $65 million in additional “development assistance” to Armenia this year. The head of U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, and the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also took part in the ensuing talks.
“Today’s high-level dialogue signifies Armenia’s expanding partnership with the United States and the European Union,” Pashinian told reporters.
The talks came amid Armenia’s mounting tensions with Russia stemming from what Pashinian’s government sees as Moscow’s failure to honor its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally. Earlier this year, Pashinian announced the effective suspension of his country’s membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and threatened to withdraw from the Russian-led military alliance altogether. He also did not rule out the possibility of applying for EU membership.
RUSSIA -- An Armenian tuck passes through the Russian-Georgian border crossing at Upper Lars, June 21, 2023.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern over the Brussels talks last week, saying that they are part of the West’s efforts to break up the Russian-Armenian alliance. It claimed that Armenia is becoming an “instrument for the implementation of extremely dangerous plans of the collective West.”
A ministry official warned separately that Yerevan’s possible exit from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc, would have disastrous consequences for the Armenian economy.
Russia accounted last year for over 35 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade, compared with 13 percent and 3.2 percent shares of the EU and the U.S. respectively. The Russian market absorbed 40 percent of Armenian exports worth $8.4 billion.
Von der Leyen listed “trade diversification” among the objectives of the latest EU aid package for Armenia. She also praised Yerevan for taking “measures against the circumvention of sanctions” imposed by the West on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
Armenian entrepreneurs have cashed in on the sanctions, re-exporting second-hand cars, consumer electronics and other Western goods to Russia. That was the main contributor to robust economic growth recorded in Armenia in 2022 and 2023.