Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, during his speech at today’s plenary session of the seventh Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, expressed the fear that regional security in the South Caucasus is threatened because Russia, Armenia’s strategic security ally, is now focused on the war in Ukraine.

Pashinyan said that the international community’s attention is also focused on Ukraine, and that longstanding security issues in the South Caucasus are being neglected.

Pashinyan reminded forum attendees that Azerbaijan launched a war in Karabakh in 2020 when the world’s attention was focused on overcoming the coronavirus pandemic.

The Armenian prime minster said that Yerevan hopes to normalize relations with Turkey and to settle the Nagorno Karabakh issue with the support of Russia. Pashinyan said Russia has a vital role to play in this regard because Moscow has close relations with Yerevan and Baku.

Pashinyan said there are forces who are portraying Armenia as pro-West in Russian circles and pro-Russian in western circles in a bid to destabilize the South Caucasus.

Pashinyan said Armenia is and will remain a strategic ally of Russia and that this relationship must be a key factor for regional peace and stability.

Turning to economic matters, Pashinyan said that Armenia lies at the crossroads of international trade and that construction of the North-South Highway in Armenia will facilitate the movement of goods, especially when transportation links in the South Caucasus are reopened.

“The idea of ​​this project is that Armenia will get transport routes through the territory of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan will get transport routes through the territory of Armenia. Globally, it is an opportunity to open new international trade channels,” Pashinyan said, adding that certain legal issues need to be resolved regarding under whose jurisdiction these roadways will fall under.

“The general position is that the roads to be opened must operate under the full sovereignty of the countries through which they pass. And we hope that with this principle we will be able to implement a project we call the Armenian Crossroads. We hope that the roads connecting the south to the north and the west to the east will pass through the territory of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan added that the project is very important not only for the countries of the region - Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey - but also for Russia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

(Launched by Russia in 2016, the annual Eastern Economic Forum aims at supporting the economic development of the Russian Far East and expanding international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.)