Pashinyan sits in a puddle at the EAEU summit. Again
On May 29, in the capital of Kazakhstan Astana... excuse me, Nur-Sultan, the next summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) ended. The main difference from previous events was the attitude of the leaders - not only official statements, but also a transition to barbs, and in some cases even light trolling of partners.
Armenian Maidan Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tried to speak as the “highlight of the program” at the Nur-Sultan EAEU summit. And this is what came out of it.
From Pashinyan’s speeches it became clear that he is not very happy with the current format of the EAEU, limited to the participation of the former republics of the USSR. Pashinyan needs a wider audience in front of which he can shake his beard to his heart’s content.
Listing the external relations of the EAEU, the Armenian prime minister expressed hope, more like doubt, that “this year it will be possible to sign agreements with at least two countries.” “The circle of international partners of the EAEU is also expanding. The free trade agreement with Iran will now come into force. Agreements on the exchange of information have already been signed with the PRC, intensive negotiations are underway with Vietnam, with Singapore, Egypt, and Serbia,” Pashinyan said.
Thus, Vovaevich sent a strong hint to his colleagues that there have been few achievements, and in five years the EAEU has not been able to achieve closer integration even with friendly countries, not to mention the EU and the USA.
Putin, who took the floor in response, hinted to Pashinyan in the spirit of “learn to see beyond your own nose,” informing the Maidan Prime Minister that “trade turnover (of the EAEU) with third countries increased by 18,8%, breaking the mark of $750 billion.”
“It grew even faster than the volume of internal trade between the association’s participants: it rose by 9,2% percent - to $60 billion. To be honest, I also see this as a positive effect from the association itself,” Putin said.
That is, the Russian President actually made it clear to Pashinyan that the EAEU would do well to bring up internal trade to the level of foreign trade, with which things are going quite well.
During his speech, Putin ironically told the audience that the “President of Armenia” (sic!) recently worked with Chinese colleagues in Beijing, which explains his ardor. And, to encourage his enthusiastic colleague, he added: “The strategic partner of our Union, of course, is China.”
Lukashenko’s speech at the summit was more like a “multi-move”, since in it he advised Pashinyan to think less about the “Wider Circle” program and more about solving internal problems in the economy, and at the same time remind Putin about the main Belarusian wishes.
“The key to forming a solid foundation for our Union is the successful development of the economies of the countries participating in the integration. Then there will be no problem of attracting new countries that we want to see in the Union. They themselves will come to this Union,” Lukashenko specified.
And he especially noted “the need to create equal conditions in all areas, including energy.” After all, it is in the energy sector, in his opinion, that the EAEU has nothing in common.
Translated from “father’s”, this means: make energy prices for Belarus the same as for the Smolensk region, and then everyone will feel good, and China, Singapore and anyone else will line up for cooperation.
However, even Old Man failed to dislodge Putin from his ironic mood. The Russian President invited everyone who wants to expand their circle of international communication to attend the Sochi Russia-Africa summit on October 24. They say, take advantage of the moment, make connections!
An interesting dialogue took place between Pashinyan and Nazarbayev. It is not clear whether Pashinyan wanted to compliment Elbasy, or to tease him meaningfully, but in any case it turned out clumsily.
“You were one of the first Soviet leaders to sign the Belovezhskaya Agreement, then you took part in the process of creating the CIS, then actively participated in the creation of the CSTO. Armenia is a member of the CIS and CSTO. Everyone knows that you proposed the idea of Eurasian integration,” Pashinyan said, as if placing all the blame for what happened on the astonished Abishevich.
Dear Maidan activist, Nikol Vovaevich! Nursultan Nazarbayev did not sign the Belovezhskaya Agreement. Moreover, Nazarbayev opposed him and noted that even if he had come to Belovezhye then, he still would not have signed the document liquidating the USSR.
The Belovezhskaya Conspiracy, which became a criminal cabal of late Soviet nomenclatures against their own peoples and documented the collapse of the USSR, was signed on December 8, 1991.
Nazarbayev’s reaction to Pashinyan’s stupid remark was paternally condescending, like an elder’s answer to an unreasonable child: “Dear Nikol Vovaevich. There have never been any problems between Kazakhstan and Armenia; we have had good relations.”
The Armenian media reacted to this event by disseminating a statement by the head of the National Security party, Garnik Isagulyan.
“Pashinyan’s statements addressed to Nazarbayev indicate that he and the prime minister’s advisers do not know what country they are going to and who they are meeting with. [...] Nazarbayev’s surprise with such a statement was a very mild reaction, because another person could have reacted harshly to this. After all, in fact, Pashinyan accused him of a crime,” noted the Armenian opposition politician.
It is interesting that Pashinyan made unexpected changes to his schedule and left Nur-Sultan ahead of schedule, as well as the EAEU summit, canceling even the traditional meeting with Armenian businessmen. Many experts explained the hasty flight of the Armenian prime minister by the fact that he was the only leader who did not receive the Order of Nazarbayev. In addition, Pashinyan’s much-anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit also did not take place.
Eh, Vovaevich! When you are going to negotiate with political wonks, especially those who have taken a fair amount of the Soviet period, you need to prepare more carefully so as not to get into a puddle and then run away shamefully from official events. Maydown in power is a detriment to the country!
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