Western sanctions against Russia pose a threat to Armenia - PM

ArmInfo. Armenia does not intend to leave the Eurasian Economic Union. On March 14, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at a press conference.

According to him, the sanctions imposed by the West against Russia  are pose a threat to Armenia. <In 2022, a huge increase in the trade  turnover of our country with the EAEU states was registered.  Meanwhile, there are concerns from Western countries about the  possibility of Armenia circumventing the sanctions imposed against  Russia. Maneuvering between these poles, Armenia has a good  opportunity to further develop the growth rates of the RA economy,  but if Armenia suddenly finds itself under sanctions, this  opportunity will simply collapse>, Nikol Pashinyan said.

In this regard, the Prime Minister pointed to the importance of  representing Armenia on the international platform as a reliable  partner. <We must operate within this range, which is as wide in  scope as narrow. We must be very careful, since there are both wide  opportunities and more than serious threats," Nikol Pashinyan said,  emphasizing the importance of free economic zones not creating  problems for the country and private business, which is engaged in  export-import operations.

The RA Prime Minister recalled the topic of unblocking regional  communications, on which there is no progress. <If there were such  communications, the country's GDP growth rate would not be 7 %, but  12.13%. We will do our best to increase the economic and investment  attractiveness of the country," Nikol Pashinyan stressed, adding that  the reputable international rating agencies  such as Fitch and  Standard & Poor's positively assessed the prospects for the  development of the Armenian economy in the near future.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that after four years of active work, they  finally managed to sign an agreement on the Amulsar mine, the  exploitation of which will become a serious impetus for the  development of the country's economy. One of the advantages of this  project, as the prime minister noted, is that the RA government will  receive 12.5% of the shares in this project. This means that the  state budget will receive income from these shares, and another 7  million dollars will be received by the budgets of the communities  closest to the mine. Thus, the budgets of the cities of Jermuk, Vayk,  Sisian will be almost doubled. And by increasing the budgets of these  communities, the opportunities for the implementation of subvention  programs will also increase, which will lead to the growth of new  jobs, the implementation of new investment projects.