YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Belgium was productive and distinguished with key highlights, political scientist Greta Avetisyan told a press conference in Armenpress, stating that this visit was firstly important in terms of several clarifications on the Armenian events.

“It’s clear that after the change in power in Armenia there were questions among several European officials regarding the situation in the country, and this visit was important in terms of touching upon these issues. It was also important in the context of clarifying the relations agenda with the EU and outlining the priorities”, the political scientist said.

She specifically highlighted the Armenian PM’s meetings with Federica Mogherini, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels during which the officials discussed the Armenia-EU ties and emphasized that this mutual partnership should further strengthen and deepen.

“We can state that we already have that set of tools, it is being enshrined by the new Armenia-EU agreement and after its full implementation we will be able to really talk about further deepening and expanding the Armenia-EU ties”, Greta Avetisyan said. In this context she highlighted PM Pashinyan’s statement according to which there are positive signals from the EU regarding the ongoing processes in Armenia, however, they are still at the statements level, but practical steps are expected.

“Why these practical steps do not exist yet? It’s not linked with the fact that the EU doesn’t want or there are some obstacles, there are just some bureaucratic processes, any decision passes through many phases before being made”, she said.

The political scientist also commented on the EU-Azerbaijan ties. She said the EU-Azerbaijan partnership priorities document was initialed in Brussels which was followed by interesting developments. The Azerbaijani foreign minister announced that the “EU expresses support to the territorial integrity in the document”.

“The document is not released yet, therefore we cannot say for sure whether it is so or not, but if we rely on the EU’s press statement, there is no reference to the territorial integrity there, only it mentions the 4 priorities over which the cooperation should move forward”, the political scientist said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan