Politics

The Prime Minister delivered a speech at the Atlantic Council

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Atlantic Council in Washington, where he delivered a speech.

The Prime Minister first answered questions from John Herbst, Senior Director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and former U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Then, the meeting was held in a closed format, during which Nikol Pashinyan answered several experts' questions.

Below is the full text of Prime Minister Pashinyan's speech and Q&A with John Herbst.

Ambassador John Herbst, Senior Director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center - Today, I am honored to host His Excellency Mr. Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. Today will be a fascinating dialogue. The Prime Minister has led his country since the Velvet Revolution of 2018, which brought significant democratic change to Armenia. Since then, he has led his country through a turbulent period, holding snap elections in 2021. A journalist by profession, Mr. Prime Minister is now trying to write a new history for Armenia and its future. A future where there will be peace and normal relations with neighbors, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a future where the United States, the West, and Europe will be interested in cooperating with Armenia. There is already a new US-Armenia strategic partnership, which is a big step forward for the future of Armenia and Washington-Yerevan relations. Please accept my congratulations on this development, Prime Minister Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Mirzoyan. This partnership stems from the interests of Armenia and the United States. So, I invite Mr. Prime Minister to take the floor, after which a discussion will occur.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan - Dear Mr. Herbst, distinguished representatives of think tanks,

I am glad to have the opportunity to discuss the Republic of Armenia's foreign policy with you. The Government of Armenia has adopted a balanced foreign policy. The core of this policy is to increase the Republic of Armenia's level of independence and sovereignty.

When we considered the formula for increasing independence, we concluded that it means replacing dependence on the few with reliance on the many. Now, we are acting within the framework of this formula. Of course, we are focused first of all on our regional relations because how independent and secure we will be and how reliable our security system will be depends on what kind of relations we have in our region.

You know that two of our country's four borders are entirely closed. I am talking about our borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan. We have two more borders—Georgia and Iran. Of course, these two borders are very important for us. We cooperate and have good relations with our two neighbors—Georgia and Iran—but we want to open a new era in our relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In previous years, we have made tremendous progress in the peace process with Azerbaijan. To make this progress understandable for you, you know that we are currently discussing a draft peace treaty with Azerbaijan, and now we have reached complete agreement on 15 of the 17 points of that treaty, and there are two points left on which we still need to get a final deal. We would like to complete this process as quickly as possible. Of course, we are working with Azerbaijan in a bilateral format. Still, the attention and support of the international community would be beneficial in creating an appropriate environment for achieving sustainable peace.

We have a reasonably active dialogue with Turkey. In recent years, I have had several meetings with the President of Turkey; I was present at the inauguration of the President of Turkey, we recently met in New York within the framework of the UN General Assembly, and we have a particular agreement to open our border in the first phase to citizens of third countries and people holding diplomatic passports. We plan to implement this agreement as soon as possible. We are working in that direction.

On the other hand, we are deepening cooperation with other regional partners, including Georgia and Iran. Of course, an international situation hinders the deepening of relations with our neighbors, and these circumstances are known to everyone; I will not mention them. But we are managing to take all these circumstances into account, and on the other hand, to develop relations with our neighbors. Of course, we hope that there will be a breakthrough in our regional situation when we manage to finalize the peace treaty with Azerbaijan and sign it, as well as achieve normalization of relations with Turkey, which will not only completely change the regional situation, but also, I think, I think it will have a very tangible and significant impact on the international situation.

We remain members of the Eurasian Economic Union, and I would assess our relations within it as usual. The Eurasian Economic Union is functioning, and we work within its framework. However, we suspended our participation in the CSTO, our leading security partner. We made this decision because the CSTO failed to fulfill its obligations to guarantee the security of the Republic of Armenia.

In general, we are now diversifying our foreign relations in all areas, from the economy to security.

You know that we are deepening our relations with the European Union. Last year, something significant happened in our relations with the European Union. Since 2022, a civilian observation mission has been deployed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and this is the first time that the European Union has participated in the security agenda of the Republic of Armenia. We are developing cooperation with the European Union. We recently launched a dialogue on visa liberalization and hope to complete it as soon as possible.

The European Union has made another critical decision: including Armenia in the European Peace Facility, which is also a crucial political decision. We recently signed the Charter of Strategic Partnership with the United States, which is also an important decision. We hope to open a new chapter in our relations with the United States.

We are actively working on a balanced foreign policy and implementing it effectively. Despite all the challenges, we have increased our independence and sovereignty. I usually say that Armenia is becoming an increasingly independent country, which is very important. It opens up new opportunities for us and brings new challenges.

Obviously, these days, there are many challenges in international politics, particularly for Armenia, which we feel. However, we also see that new opportunities are opening up, and our task is to manage all the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities as much as possible.

I want to draw the attention of this audience to a critical topic: democracy. It is essential to emphasize that Armenia is now a developing democracy. This is very important, and the international community recognizes it. I think that this circumstance, democracy, has a significant impact on our foreign policy because when a country is democratic, it will try to deepen cooperation with all other democratic countries. We hope that this aspiration of ours will be mutual. We see and appreciate this.

We will continue the agenda of democratic reforms. Of course, as everywhere, democracy brings challenges, but it also opens up opportunities. We are trying to manage all challenges, including internal ones, and use all opportunities to develop our country, keeping the security agenda at the center first and foremost.

However, as the most critical continuation of security, we see prosperity and happiness, freedom, protection of human rights, an independent judiciary, and, in general, the success of our citizens. We want them to feel that democracy is indeed a factor capable of ensuring security, prosperity, and more and more opportunities for all citizens and all people living in Armenia. As a result of these reforms, Armenia will become a more attractive country to invest in, live in, and visit. This is the policy that we are trying to advance.

Of course, we feel that Armenia's visibility as a democratic country is growing, which is very encouraging, but on the other hand, of course, we hope to provide more visibility and receive more support from our international partners to make Armenia's success story in democracy, its history of challenges and security threats more visible to the global community, which I think can and will be a factor of stability and peace for our country and our region. I tried to present a general picture of our country and region, and now I am ready to answer all your questions. Thank you.

Ambassador John Herbst, Senior Director of the Eurasian Center at the Atlantic Council – Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for this comprehensive speech. I will briefly talk with Mr. Prime Minister for 15 minutes, after which I will give the floor to the audience. It seems that you have already answered my first question. I want to ask why you are so determined to achieve peace with Azerbaijan. But I would like to ask another question. I think you have given convincing reasons for your path to peace, but was it easy to convince the people of Armenia to follow this path?

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: Prosperity and security are impossible without peace, honesty, and growing independence. They are simply impossible. In Armenia, people and political forces are discussing how this is possible and what the most reliable tool is to ensure our country's and people's security. This is a very urgent and essential question. We answer that peace is the only reliable tool for security; the only reliable tool for prosperity is peace.

Peace is key even for democracy because democracy cannot exist in an environment of war. Due to historical factors, people in Armenia are not very optimistic about the peace agenda. On the other hand, if you ask me whether I am an optimist or a pessimist, I would answer that I do not think we should be optimists or pessimists; we should be proactive and creative and continuously work towards implementing that agenda.

No one can guarantee the process's success. The only guarantee is persistent work, creativity, proactiveness, not giving up, and continuous effort to achieve the desired outcome. Obviously, the potential benefits of peace are important not only for the people living in Armenia but for the entire region; even the international community will benefit from that peace.

Thus, we perceive this process as our contribution to world peace because world peace and stability are formed when as many interested parties in international relations as possible contribute to that cause and work in that direction. We look at this process from that perspective: It is not only our duty to our citizens and to our region, but it is our duty to the international community, to international stability and peace.

We hope that the international community will also consider this process from that perspective. We expect to receive the support of our international partners and their encouragement to continue on this path. This is why we are trying to explain all the nuances of our intentions to our international partners.

Ambassador John Herbst, Senior Director of the Eurasian Center at the Atlantic Council – Thank you. You mentioned that in the negotiations with Azerbaijan, you reached an agreement on 15 out of 17 points of the peace agreement. Not yet on 2. Being honest but maintaining diplomatic ethics, I think the negotiations will last a long time if the authorities in Baku are not interested in peace. That will be a victory for both sides as your Government approaches the issue. Please discuss those two points on which an agreement still needs to be reached and the prospects for an agreement.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: One of the points concerns the deployment of third-party forces along the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan proposes to impose a ban on the deployment of third-party troops along the border, taking into account the European Civilian Monitoring Mission. We take note of Azerbaijan's desire and have come up with our proposal, which implies applying this point only to the demarcated sections of the border. In other words, no third-party force should be present if we have demarcated a given section. So, we have submitted our proposal in writing and await Azerbaijan's response.

The other point concerns the complaints filed against each other in legal structures. The idea is to cancel all these complaints. In general, we are not against this idea either, but our proposal consists of canceling these complaints and not raising these issues in bilateral relations. Otherwise, a strange situation may arise when, for example, an issue is withdrawn from the jurisdiction of an international organization. Still, one of the parties tries to put that issue on the table in bilateral relations, and one can use that issue to provoke escalation. In that case, transferring that claim to international organizations will no longer be possible. We are not against that idea either. We propose to end further discussions on conflict issues and open a new era of bilateral relations, starting from a new and clean page.

This means that all the critical issues of the draft peace treaty have already been agreed upon. Although the draft included intense and sensitive topics, there is already agreement on all these issues. For example, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to recognize each other's territorial integrity on the borders of Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan.

We have agreed to include a provision that Armenia and Azerbaijan have no territorial claims to each other and will not raise such claims in the future. This is the cornerstone of future peace, and everything is agreed on. It shows that peace is more than achievable now, and only political will is needed to complete the draft peace treaty, sign it, and achieve a lasting peace.

Ambassador John Herbst, Senior Director of the Eurasian Center at the Atlantic Council, also recognizes the importance of normalizing relations with Turkey. Although there has been noticeable progress toward achieving that goal, it has not yet been realized. What are the prospects for normalizing relations with Ankara?

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: We will continue that dialogue. Armenia and Turkey have never been in such an active dialogue as they are now. There are no obstacles to communication with Turkey, and we are in continuous contact. Our foreign ministers meet and talk continuously, our representatives are in constant contact, we are working very actively, and there is a common understanding of what needs to be done. But of course, some nuances and final steps are required to achieve an accurate result. We hope that the result will be ready soon.