Pashinyan: Peace with Azerbaijan allows Armenia to expand EU cooperation

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that the recently established peace with Azerbaijan allows Armenia to expand its cooperation with the EU, including in infrastructure projects.

He made the remarks at a joint press conference with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Strasbourg, ahead of his address to the European Parliament.

When asked about defense cooperation between Armenia and the EU, Pashinyan said that Armenia already maintains defense cooperation with individual EU member states.

“We have defense cooperation with France, and through the European Peace Facility, we have already received support from the European Union twice. Overall, we cooperate with the EU in a regional context, and the recently established peace with Azerbaijan provides us with an opportunity to expand our cooperation with the EU, including in infrastructure projects,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

PM Pashinyan emphasized that when people talk about security, it is often understood as weapons, ammunition, the military, special services, operational actions, and so on — a perception that Armenia has lived with for nearly 30 years.

“In Armenia, there is also much discussion about security guarantees. For me, it is now obvious that the only true guarantee of security is peace. There is no more reliable security guarantee than peace,” the Prime Minister said.

According to Pashinyan, the second layer of security guarantees is cooperation — including economic cooperation, interdependency, and mutual benefit.

“Of course, we have defense cooperation with the United States and several European countries, which we never had before. Nevertheless, understanding that the development of the military is very important, and that every sovereign country has not only the right but also the duty to ensure its security, our perception of security evolves over time — shifting from primarily military to more political and diplomatic,” Pashinyan emphasized.

The Prime Minister again stressed that the focus should be placed more on these aspects.

“Even within Armenia, when I speak on this topic, I say that the military, for us, is not a security tool but a reserve — in case, under any circumstances, the primary tools of peace I mentioned do not work,” concluded the Armenian Prime Minister.