FRIENDSHIP FOR SHOW

On October 1, Yerevan hosted a summit of the heads of member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the forum Transit Potential of the Eurasian Continent. Although both events were held in Yerevan, the role of Armenia was very limited. The country did not make a significant contribution to the agenda of the event, except for resolving issues related to the organisation of accommodation of the guests, banquet, etc.

Nevertheless, the EAEU summit in Yerevan will go down in history. Thanks to the efforts of the organization’s secretariat and the authority of its leading members, presidents of non-member states of the association (Iran, Moldova and Singapore) also took part at the summit. This significantly expands the geography of the EAEU, contributes to the growth in the number of countries interested in relations with this integration platform.

As a rule, the EAEU agenda is determined by the decisions of the Council of Heads of State of the organization or the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. The working body that forms approaches related to specific issues is the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), which usually involves the deputy heads of government of the EAEU countries and the chairman of the EEC Board. As the incumbent chairman of the EAEU, Armenia could offer its initiatives, hence contributing to the development of the union, however, given the real potential of Armenian economy and exorbitant ambitions, Yerevan could not offer anything other than unrealistic plans.

During the Transit Potential of the Eurasian Continent, the Armenian prime minister did not find anything better than to propose becoming a junction for energy systems of the EAEU and Iran. It seems that N. Pashinian forgot that only a couple of months ago his country faced a massive power blackout due to significant deterioration of transmission lines but it is unlikely that Iran has forgotten that.

Furthermore, the project of connecting the energy systems of Iran, Armenia and Russia has existed for more years, however, the partners of Yerevan preferred a different route through Azerbaijan. In March 2019, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his country was considering plans to connect Iran's power network to Russia through Azerbaijan.

On August 12, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran concluded an agreement on the joint development of a feasibility study for a project to create a North-South energy corridor between the energy systems of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

Armenia’s attempt to impose on Iran the possibility of the Meghri Free Economic Zone as a "link between Iran and the EAEU" also looked quite awkward. In response, Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani made many pleasant words about Armenia, promised his assistance in developing bilateral relations and, speaking to the summit participants, invited everyone to use the potential of their free economic zones, making it clear to the Armenian Prime Minister that it’s not so complicated N. Pashinian thinks about it.

The trip to the so-called centre of new technologies, which is promoted as Armenia’s technological breakthrough, has left a very weak impression on the participants. The centre is far from the Silicon Valley. In fact, this is an ordinary training platform developing technological solutions for production processes.

Apparently, the participants did not appreciate the efforts of Pashinian to present his country as a strategic point on the EAEU map either. Despite the lack of interest among the EAEU member states in the development of cooperation with Armenia, Armenian media has painted a colourful picture of the fantastic future of Armenian-Iranian relations on the eve and during the visit of the Iranian president to Yerevan. In particular, the media has reanimated the issues of the railway communication between Iran and Armenia. Armenian (!) journalists claim that the issue was widely discussed at a recent special meeting organised by the Iranian president. Authors of such pseudo-theories even suggest that Iran was thinking about the establishment of a trilateral Iranian-Armenian-Chinese format of cooperation for a deeper study of the railway issue.

The Armenian railways, as well as the country's power infrastructure is going through difficult times. In fact, the Armenian railways are managed by Russia according to a long-term agreement. After the local law enforcement agencies suspected the managing company of tax evasion, the Russian Ministry of Transportation warned the Armenian authorities at the end of September that the branch office of Russian Railways could terminate the agreement. It is noteworthy that the Russian representative explained that Armenia "created a situation" in which the local operator of Armenian railways and full subsidiary of Russian Railways, the South Caucasus Railways (SCR), cannot "work normally".

If Armenia has no conditions for the normal operation of a Russia company, how can Iran, China or any other country work there effectively? It is therefore unlikely that any outside investor would want to risk its assets in Armenia given the risks that may follow after Russia gives up its unprofitable assets in the country, especially when it is safer to use the existing railway infrastructure in the neighbouring Azerbaijan.

In general, it would be wrong to overestimate the significance of the summit for Yerevan. It was held in Armenia according to the principle of rotation of chairmen. As the current chairman of the EAEU, it was Armenia's turn to host the summit. Putin and Rouhani thanked Pashinian but not for his contribution to the development of processes in the EAEU but for the organization and holding of the event. They only appreciated the technical side of the organisation since Yerevan does not make a real contribution to the organization’s activities. Moreover, everyone remembers well that, as an oppositionist, Pashinian has actively opposed Armenia’s participation in this association. This demonstrates the inconsistency of the policy of the current prime minister.

The visits of Putin, Rouhani, and the presidents of other countries to Yerevan took place simply because Yerevan became the next venue of the summit thanks to the principle of interchangeability of the EAEU chairmen. In other words, the presidents visited Yerevan for the EAEU. All statements made during the event were strictly for record. Presidents Putin and Rouhani did not sign any serious bilateral documents with Armenia, as their visits were not even the working ones.

Pashinian tried to use the summit for his own purposes. His meeting with President Putin did not last longer than with Bella Kocharian, the wife of Pashinian's worst enemy, former president of the republic Robert Kocharian.

A number of participants were very irritated by impromptu actions of the Armenian prime minister like taking a selfie. Especially when a desire to expose some behind-the-scenes moments of the summit in public is not condoned by the participants. Even Pashinian admitted later that not everyone liked his action. This demonstrates the unprofessionalism of the organisers and completely different interests of the participants. Pashinian tried to present his country as a bridge between the EAEU and other countries, but once again put himself in a rather difficult situation. As the saying goes, they tried the best, but we know the rest…