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“Shared values have a lot of pressures and not just in Eastern Partnership. Democracy, human rights, our accountability before people, and they are very good for resolving conflicts, unlike the authoritarian regimes. Then, we have to pay attention to it as well: shared values, what is happening in the European Union. We have to be very open about this,” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said addressing the Eastern Partnership 10th anniversary Ministerial meeting on “A new political vision for EaP” on Tuesday. 

To the question that looking ahead 5, 10 years, where he would like to see Armenia’s relations with the EU, in such a time frame, he said: “Five to ten years on, that’s exactly where we have been benefiting from, how we will continue to benefit from the relations with the European Union, relations with Europe, relations within Europe. I think the important challenge is to spread the sense of the Eastern flank of Europe further towards other parts of Europe. Poland and Sweden have been very important as the engine of developing the concept of the Eastern Partnership. But spreading that sense of mutual dependence, significance of the Eastern Partnership to every part of Europe, I think, that’s a very important challenge. Developing the shared, value-based relationship, our CEPA, basically, gives us that absolute opportunity to raise the level of our development according to the model we are striving at. Like the sectoral cooperation within CEPA gives us that opportunity, so let’s get the best of it. We have shown the powers of political will so far as anti-corruption is concerned, democratic institutions and so on, so forth. We know that’s not enough, we have to institutionally further strengthen and enhance them. And that’s what we are doing, and that’s where the Euroepan Union has been and remains an important partner to us and those are just examples of how we are evolving.

“We have this evolution of relations, it carries on. We square into the bigger picture of those security challenges we are dealing with, and our security challenges are pretty complex, not exactly the subject to discuss now. But within that the European Union has been an important security provider in terms of both the institutional strength, institutional capacities, the values, that mattered for 28 years, it’s going to matter further on. This is the playground, we believe in, we work with, and this is very important. This is how it’s going to continue. Thank you.”

Asked what can Armenia offer in terms of cooperation, the foreign policy chief said: “Armenia is very comfortable in its playground, the Armenian people have been contributing to the collective sense of the shared security, the shared development. This is what is important for all. Let alone wine, brandy, good creative education, good smart development, but those are specific, practical things. What do we offer out of cooperation? Exactly what cooperation is for. That is the sense of a common house. And I do agree that in fact we have an excellent process on structured conversation, concerning the next 10 years. This has to be kept up. There are many good and interesting ideas, which make more tangible. Within this format it is a general talk, but I think within that structured conversation we have a plethora of interesting ideas about the way in which we find ways contributing mutually to what is good to all of us, the sense of common home. That is the biggest thing.”