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Armenia was ready to sign the negotiated part of the Association Agreement with the European Union as far as it didn’t contradict to the state’s other obligations. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated during the discussion of the state budget 2015 implementation held at the National Assembly on May 26.

Nalbandian’s comments came in response to MP Nikol Pashnyan‘s remarks.

The parliamentarian particularly asked how Armenia decided “in one day” to join the Eurasian Economic Union putting forward arguments that the negotiated Association Agreement didn’t provide security guarantees to Armenia and Artsakh.

“On April 2 we witnessed that not only have the security concerns emerged, they have also deteriorated in the result of that decision,” Pashinyan noted.

FM Nalbandian dismissed the claim suggesting that for numerous times Armenia had expressed readiness to sign the negotiated part of the Association Agreement and referred to the working groups formed by the representatives of the RA government and those of Customs Union member states.

“The decision [of joining the Customs Union] didn’t come in one day. We announced our decision for launching the negotiations. The 1000 pages document was to be negotiated and that was not out of blue,” Nalbandian said, adding Armenia at the same time was ready to proceed with signing the Association Agreement with the EU unless it didn’t contradict Armenia’s taken obligations toward the CU.
Foreign minister then reflected on the current negotiations with the European Union and referred to the head of EU Delegation to Armenia Ambassador Piotr Switalski’s recent remarks about certain difficulties in the current phase of EU-Armenia negotiations.

“Mr. Switalski is wrong if he considers that to be a form of pressure. We conduct good negotiations and are satisfied with the three rounds held so far. No timetables have been set. We may not predict when the negotiations are over although we do our best to complete those within short terms,” Nalbandian noted.