Azerbaijan’s EEU membership not on our agenda now - Armenian parliament official

It isn’t realistic to speak about Azerbaijan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) as long as the issue hasn’t been seriously negotiated, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov said today, commenting on a recent statement by a Russian official.  

“Armenia serves its own interests in absolutely all the organizations; hence we never support any ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ just for nothing,” he said in an interview with Tert.am.

Sergey Glazyev, an advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Friday that Azerbaijan’s possible membership in the economic bloc depends largely upon Armenia, which can also exercise the right to veto.

“Glazyev’s statement is certainly logical, as no country can be an EEU member without Armenia. And it’s not only about Azerbaijan; no country can join or sign an Association Agreement with the EEU unless there is consent by Armenia. The same may hold true for China, Iran etc,” Sharmazanov noted.

According to him, the issue wasn’t on the agenda of the EEU leaders’ recent top level meetings in Sochi. “We say ‘yes’ wherever our interests match and say ‘no’ wherever they do not. Specifically in Sochi, nothing of the kind was considered yesterday. I don’t think it is serious to talk about something which hasn’t been discussed for the moment. After it is discussed, Armenia will consider all the ‘pluses’ and ‘minuses’,” he said.