Friday, November 17 2017 17:57

ArmInfo. The signing on November 24 in Brussels of an agreement on Armenia's comprehensive and expanded partnership with the EU will be a good example for other members of the EAEU and for the association itself. The RA NA deputy from the faction of the Republican Party of Armenia Artashes Geghamyan expressed opinion, responding to the question of ArmInfo during the Media Forum "Lighting of Integration Processes in the CIS and the EAEU" in Yerevan.

According to Geghamyan, at a turning point the Armenian leadership displayed exceptional wisdom and, unlike Ukraine and Moldova, found the strength to declare in September 2013 its desire to join the Eurasian Economic Union. The deputy believes that if Armenia signs a document on associative membership with the EU, the economic component of this agreement would lead, as he put it, "to the absolute collapse of the Armenian economy." Now, the MP believes, the issue itself has undergone significant changes and the high officials of the EU agreed with the fact that the new partnership agreement with the EU is made with full consideration of Armenia's obligations to the EAEU. "This is the unshakable victory of Armenian diplomacy and President Serzh Sargsyan personally. Despite the most serious pressure, the president found the will to consistently promote this idea by making a disarming statement that, on the example of a close, with known costs, to the associative agreement of Armenia and the EU, the country will get unique opportunities. They are connected with the fact that, being a member of one economic organization (EAEU - Ed.) and security system (CSTO - ed.), Armenia will fortify its partnership with the EU at the same time.

According to Geghamyan, Armenia has told the world that a member of the EAEU can have "associative relations" with the EU without harming its obligations, which will be a good example for other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, including Russia, both for themselves …ЂEU. "This fact remains to be understood by our non-fans, the fact that Armenia has made a truly revolutionary step. As a consequence, all the arguments about the incompatibility of the two associations - the EAEC and the EU, reinforced by the pumped from third countries, in fact, turned out to be a fiction, "Artashes Geghamyan stressed. In his opinion, logic shows that the possibility of developing a new quality of economic cooperation between the two associations - the EAEU and the EU is quite real. "Europe, at any rate, some European countries, understands in the depths of the inevitability of this cooperation," the deputy said.

Armenia hopes at the forthcoming summit of the Eastern Partnership on November 24, 2017 in Brussels to sign a new comprehensive agreement with the EU, which will in effect replace the current agreement on partnership and cooperation.

The agreement with the EU on enhanced partnership and cooperation from the EAEU member countries is signed by Kazakhstan, which signed the document on December 21, 2015. The agreement has been applied temporarily and in part since May 2016, and, according to European experts, has already helped to bring the bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level, and its ratification by all EU member states and full entry into force will further expand and strengthen the interaction spectrum. At the same time, the European Union remains the largest trade, economic and investment partner of Kazakhstan, and bilateral trade, after two years of decline, demonstrates positive dynamics and showed a 27% increase in the first seven months of 2017 compared to the same period last year.