ARMENIA WILL NEVER JOIN CUSTOMS UNION – EXPERT
Ekho Moskvy radio, Russia
Sept 3 2013
[Presenter] Armenia will never join the Customs Union, according
to Araik Sarkisyan, vice-president of the [Russian] Academy of
Geopolitical Problems. The expert explained that necessary conditions
for joining the union were missing. According to Sarkisyan, the
Armenian president’s statement is a clever political move.
[Sarkisyan] As long as Georgia is not a member of the Customs Union
and Azerbaijan is not a member of the Customs Union, and Armenia does
not have a direct border with Russia, at best this statement is just
a wish. Such statements have often been made before, so the latest
one should be seen as a political statement – no more, no less – in
order not to make Russia angry in the next two months until Armenia
signs a memorandum on joining the EU as an associate member [at an
Eastern Partnership summit in November] in Vilnius.
[Another expert, Mikhail Khazin, described Armenia’s decision to join
the Customs Union as “sensible” and “useful”.
“Armenia needs to look for external markets. It has very bad relations
with Turkey, Iran is under sanctions and it is difficult to enter
its market, so there is only the Customs Union, and this is a very
sensible decision. For us, from the political point of view, it is
a useful thing. From the economic point of view, it will practically
have no effect,” Khazin told Ekho Moskvy radio.
An expansion of the Customs Union will be in Russia’s interests since
it “plays an important role” in the Customs Union, he added.]
[Translated from Russian]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
