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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia could reach road infrastructure development agreements with Iran, India and China during the upcoming BRICS summit in Russia, according to economist Anna Pakhlyan.
Armenia will participate in the BRICS summit for the first time on October 22-24. A non-BRICS country, Armenia has strong economic ties with most of its members (Russia, China, Iran, India and UAE), and seeks to promote relations with others.
73% of Armenian exports and 53,7% of imports in 2023 went to /came from Russia, UAE, China, Iran and India respectively, according to Pakhlyan, a senior researcher at Amberd Research Center. Exports to Egypt grew more than twice, while imports grew 4 times.
The UAE was recently named Armenia’s top exports destination.
Pakhlyan said the figures show that Armenia has potential to further develop economic cooperation with BRICS countries.
“The inclusion of new countries in BRICS shows its growing influence in global politics,” the researcher added, noting that the upcoming summit in Kazan will focus on strengthening economic cooperation, international security and stability, socio-economic development, partnership in science, modernization of the international financial system and other issues.
For Armenia, she said, “achieving agreements with Iran, India and China over road infrastructure development issues could have key importance” and it will further strengthen cooperation.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Armenia has active commercial ties with Brazil but the trade volumes with Ethiopia and South Africa are low. In 2023 trade between Armenia and Ethiopia amounted to just over 904,000 dollars, while trade with South Africa was 8,6 million dollars.
“Participation in the Kazan summit will have key importance for Armenia in terms of strengthening partnerships, diversifying exports markets, infrastructure development and joint projects. From this perspective, I will highlight the importance of strengthening cooperation especially with Iran, India, China and the UAE,” Pakhlyan said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in early September, accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit.