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Azerbaijan launched the war in 2020 when the international community, including Russia, was entirely focused on the issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nikol Pashinyan said in his speech at the 7th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday.

Pashinyan thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invitation to the forum’s plenary session, which Pashinyan described as an effective arena for exchanging views and ideas on a broad range of issues.

“The most common expression this year is perhaps the following – ‘we are living in difficult times’. But if we look closer, a question arises – when were the times easy? Let’s be honest, the history of mankind is a chain of difficult times, that’s why mankind invented another formula that any crisis situation brings new dangers and creates new opportunities. Now the main objective of countries and governments is to manage these dangers and identify and utilize the opportunities. In this context, of course these are difficult times for our region too because challenges emerge or the challenges which exist for a long time are escalating,” the Armenian PM said.

He warned that when the entire international community and especially Armenia’s strategic partner Russia are focused on Ukraine, there are clear concerns that this could lead to destabilization in South Caucasus.

“You know that in 2020 we went through war, when the situation was similar with the fact that back then, when Azerbaijan launched the war, the international community, including Russia, was entirely focused on the issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we hope that through closely cooperating with Russia, as well as our other partners, we will be able to manage and control the regional situation, which is highly important for global security as well,” Pashinyan said.