Friday, April 5 2024 14:39

ArmInfo. The trilateral meeting of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, US Secretary of State Antony  Blinken and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is an important event in the context of the Yerevan-Washington and Yerevan-Brussels dialogue, Secretary of the Security Council Armen  Grigoryan said in an interview with Armenia's Public Television, answering the question that we should expect a Pashinyan-Blinken-Von der Leyen meeting in Brussels.

At the same time, he agreed that in the absence of information, for  objective reasons, narratives were created that are far from reality,  right up to the signing of a security pact.

"This is a continuation of the Pashinyan-von der Leyen meeting held  in Granada. If you remember, the Granada statement says that the  President of the European Commission will work with the United States  to coordinate efforts to support Armenia. Armenia-EU and Armenia-US  relations have undergone many changes recently , and now such a  meeting is being held at the level of leaders in order to promote the  discussed issues on the agenda in terms of the economy, this is the  main goal," he noted, adding that the key topics on the agenda of the  meeting will be issues of an economic nature.

Grigoryan added that Armenia wants to gain access to technologies and  markets in both the EU and the US market.

"Our goal is to promote these programs within the framework of the  upcoming event. A number of issues have already been discussed, a  fairly large agenda has already been formed in two years, but there  are also new issues on the agenda that will be discussed in Brussels.  This is an event that will really change our relations as with the EU  as well as with the US, but this is an ongoing process. Naturally, we  have a lot of homework to do in the context of developing these  relations, the EU and the US also have their share of work to do so  that we can move forward. On the agenda, in addition to economic  issues, are also issues helping deported refugees from  Nagorno-Karabakh and taking care of their needs," Grigoryan said.

When asked to clarify what Armenia expects from economic  diversification, the Security Council Secretary explained that  Yerevan is striving to change its economic dependence on one player  by developing interaction with many partners.

According to Grigoryan, for objective and subjective reasons, Armenia  did not have access to Western technologies for a long time, and now  the possibilities of resolving this issue and creating institutional  opportunities for this are being discussed.

"We and the United States have an intensive agenda for Armenia to  change its position in terms of technological capabilities, this is  one of the issues on the agenda of the Brussels meeting, and we will  work intensively in this direction," Grigoryan said.

Responding to criticism from Azerbaijan and Russia regarding the  upcoming meeting in Brussels, the Armenian official emphasized that  only issues related to the economy and bilateral relations between  Armenia-EU and Armenia-USA, and not regional issues, will be  discussed at this meeting. According to him, all the narratives that  are being spread by both Russia and Azerbaijan are exaggerated. "Of  course, they are trying to make noise around this, although there are  no grounds for this. They are even trying to assure about the signing  of a security pact, although this issue is not on the agenda of the  meeting at all," added Grigoryan, emphasizing that there is no reason  for jealousy, since Issues related to Azerbaijan or Russia will not  be discussed at the meeting.

At the same time, Grigoryan again assured that foreign policy  diversification is not directed against anyone, and Armenia will  cooperate with all countries that help strengthen its sovereignty,  democratization and support territorial integrity.

When asked to evaluate the latest statement by the official  representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova  regarding the fact that a possible escalation of the  Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict depends only on the extent to which  official Yerevan allows the EU, USA and Great Britain to  destructively influence the situation in the region and the country,  Grigoryan, in particular, he said:

"As far as I know, the UK has not been invited to the meeting in  Brussels. False narratives are being created around this event. This  means that the escalation with Azerbaijan depends more on Russia than  on Azerbaijan, this can be assumed from Ms Zakharova's statement,  which is very worrying," Grigoryan noted.

The Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia also assured that  Yerevan continues to develop strategic relations with Tehran, and  discusses every step with the Iranian side - explaining that  interaction with the West is not directed against them.