Pashinyan: Armenia pursues balanced foreign policy to preserve and strengthen sovereignty

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told fellow world leaders at the SCO Plus meeting in Bishkek that he believes there is broad understanding within the international community that the world should be multipolar, and that this is the balance, or the more or less reliable way to ensure stability and peace.

“In my impression, there is broad understanding within the international community that the world should be multipolar, and that this is the balance, or the more or less reliable way to ensure stability and peace,” he said at the meeting titled “The UN as a Key Element of a Just World Order: The Contribution of the SCO+ States to the Formation of a Multipolar World.”

“How can a small country like Armenia contribute to the establishment of a multipolar world? We are providing a practical answer to this question by essentially pursuing a multipolar foreign policy, which we call a balanced and balancing foreign policy.

“The essence of this policy is as follows: when the pull of any geopolitical pole becomes so strong that it could undermine our independence, we activate our relations with another pole that has sufficient attraction for this situation in order to maintain our balance on the difficult path toward sovereignty and independence,” the Prime Minister said.

He elaborated that the main goal of such a policy is to preserve and strengthen sovereignty and independence.

“And when developing these strategies, we came to the conclusion that it is impossible to have independence and sovereignty while living in conditions of conflict, and multipolarity in this sense must be expressed first and foremost in the region where you live. This is why, while deepening our friendly relations with neighboring Iran and Georgia, we are moving toward building interstate relations with our other two neighbors, Azerbaijan and Türkiye, and this, of course, is becoming more tangible thanks to the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 8 of last year with the support and participation of U.S. President Donald Trump,” he said.

The Prime Minister added that Armenia is now working with Azerbaijan and Türkiye to open interstate communications, including through the implementation of the TRIPP project, with practical work on the ground to begin in the coming months.

“This will open up new transport opportunities not only from east to west, that is, from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, but also from south to north, connecting the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea. Thus, all countries of the region will benefit from the implementation of the project,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

In the context of a multipolar policy, Pashinyan recalled that in recent years Armenia has established strategic relations with Georgia, China, Kazakhstan, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania and the European Union.

He stressed that Armenia’s relations with India and Iran are de facto strategic in nature, and that work is now underway to formalize them in documents.

“Today I will meet with the respected President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to discuss the strategy for further development of our relations.

“Dear colleagues, the Republic of Armenia shares the vision of a multipolar world.

“Emphasizing the key role of the United Nations in building a multipolar world, I would like to inform you that on October 16 of this year, the Biodiversity COP17 conference will be held in Armenia under the auspices of the UN, and I invite you all to participate in this important event highlighting the multipolarity of the world.

“Thank you for your attention, and I wish success to Pakistan, which is assuming the chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in this responsible mission,” the Prime Minister concluded.