Pashinyan highlights ‘historic’ Armenia–EU Summit outcomes

At the first Armenia–EU summit, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the discussions revealed new layers of historical significance surrounding the event.

He made the remarks at a joint press conference with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“In our reality, there has historically been a perception that Armenia is located in a bad or even terrible geographical position. Today, it was very symbolic to hear from our EU partners that Armenia actually has an excellent geographical position and is located between the East and the West, or on the shortest route connecting the East and the West. This, perhaps, reflects a change in a historical period. These formulations express a shift in a historical era, when, while remaining in the same place, due to political processes, we are moving from a historically unfavorable or sometimes even terrible geographical position to an excellent geographical position,” Pashinyan said, emphasizing that the geographical position once used to explain Armenia’s problems is now serving the vision of building a sovereign, free, prosperous, and secure country.

The Prime Minister also described the EU’s statement calling on businesses to invest in Armenia as historic.

“Throughout the previous period, since independence, Armenia has been considered a risky destination for investments. Now, at the highest level, the EU is calling on economic operators to invest in Armenia. This is also a historically significant fact, because we have never before heard such a call or message from many of our international partners,” Pashinyan stressed.

Pashinyan highlighted that the Armenia–EU cooperation agenda also includes the energy sector. He noted that Armenia has historically been seen as limited in terms of energy resources and classified among dependent countries in this regard.

“In modern times, it has turned out that Armenia has unlimited energy resources, because we have regions where the number of sunny days exceeds 300, which means there are unlimited opportunities for the development of solar energy in our country. What we lack are storage facilities, and I thank our EU partners for their willingness to support us in developing energy storage systems in Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

He added that there are also joint programs with the EU in areas such as day–night water storage and utilization cycles, the development of green hydrogen production technologies, and other potential directions.

The Prime Minister also highlighted transport connectivity in the joint agenda, noting that cooperation with neighboring countries creates opportunities to integrate into international supply chains through railway, road, internet communication, and electricity transmission networks.

Pashinyan expressed gratitude to the EU, as well as to Costa and von der Leyen personally, for their support for Armenia’s democratic reform process. He expressed expectation of continued EU assistance in areas such as strengthening an independent judiciary, more systematic anti-corruption efforts, introducing more effective integrity systems, and several other directions.