Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today met with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.
Greeting Armenia’s Prime Minister, the President of Belarus referred to the ongoing cooperation and the bottlenecks faced in the Eurasian Economic Union. “Frankly speaking, there are numerous problems in the EAEU due to the fact that we have not implemented our agreements. There are still several barriers left to the point that the business community has started to voice concerns about that. It seems that there are no borders at all, but the tensions do not die down on the borders. You can see that yourself. There is much to be done in this respect. I would like very much to see that the meeting of the Prime Ministers has solved some of those problems. The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council was a real step toward deepening relations in the EAEU zone: at least, I would like it to be so. There was a serious exchange of opinions. As far as I can understand, you were the driving force of that meeting,” the President of Belarus said, noting that Belarus and Armenia are facing nearly the same problems in the EAEU.
“We rely on the real economy; we do not have large resources like some of our partners. Perhaps, the Kyrgyzs are in the same situation, although it may be easier for them to some extent. We do not have hydrocarbons, which makes us work harder to keep abreast. Even with falling prices, Kazakhstan and Russia have adequate alternatives. Yet, we do not have such opportunities,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
Thankful for the warm reception, Prime Minister Pashinyan said, “I am pleased to see you again. We had not met for a long period due to the pandemic. I hope we will be back to the normal state of affairs and will meet on a regular basis. At today’s meeting, we listened to the report on lifting the unnecessary barriers. And I can say that we have quite good results. I can cite Armenia’s example. We had to remove two obstacles, and we have already done so. One of the decisions has come into force, while the other has been adopted but will become effective later. Russia, too, has removed two barriers just like our other partners.
We heard a report on ten barriers, eight of which have already been removed in principle. Very important issues were discussed regarding the participation of EAEU enterprises and organizations in government tenders. Either in this matter, we came to a pretty good decision. I am sure that today’s meeting will help us address this issue. It was an effective meeting. Yes, it lasted longer, but I think that it was worth working on projects considering that issues of common concern were to be solved. I know that there are issues important for Belarus, and there are issues that are of paramount importance to Armenia. I feel that if we manage to preserve the political will at this level, all issues will be solved. We have just to work to that effect.”
The interlocutors discussed other issues of mutual interest, exchanged views on the possibilities for overcoming the coronavirus pandemic.
Touching on the recent escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Prime Minister Pashinyan gave details to his Belarusian colleague.
