EU vows 270 mln euros for Armenia amid Russia tensions
BRUSSELS
The European Union on Friday pledged a 270-million-euro ($290 million) financial package for Armenia as Brussels and Washington push to boost ties with Yerevan while its relations with Russia crumble.
The announcement came after talks between Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at ramping up cooperation.
Caucasus nation Armenia is looking to solidify economic support from the West as it edges away from traditional ally Russia after anger with Moscow for failing to stop neighbouring Azerbaijan from recapturing territory in recent years.
Von der Leyen said the four-year "resilience and growth" package of financial grants for Armenia showed the EU stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Yerevan.
"Europe and Armenia share a long and common history and the time has come to write now a new chapter," she said.
Pashinyan said Friday's meeting in Brussels was proof of his ex-Soviet country's "expanding partnership" with the EU and U.S..
"I believe that our shared vision of a democratic, peaceful and prosperous future will continue to serve as the backbone and the guiding star of our mutually trusted relations," he said.
Blinken said the U.S. was also bolstering its economic support for Yerevan to $65 million this year to aid efforts to make Armenia "a strong, independent nation at peace with its neighbours".
"We have to harness this moment of choice for the Armenian people and for its leaders," he said.
Armenia has drawn Russia's ire by criticising its role as a regional security guarantor and even floating the idea of applying to join the EU.
Ahead of the talks in Brussels, Blinken called Aliyev on Wednesday to try to ease the tensions.
Pashinyan said at the Brussels meeting that he remained "committed to the normalisation of relations with Azerbaijan".
Türkiye, Azerbaijan's main backer, warned that Armenia's talks with the U.S. and EU "undermine the neutral approach that should be the basis for the solution of the complex problems of the region".
"At a time when the success of a historic opportunity is so close, it is even more important that third parties, especially actors from outside the region, adopt a fair and impartial approach to the process and carefully avoid any harm to it," read a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on April 4.
The trilateral meeting excluding Azerbaijan, the statement said, would undermine the neutral approach necessary for resolving the complex problems of the region.
"This initiative, which excludes Azerbaijan, will pave the way for the South Caucasus to become an area of geopolitical conflict, rather than serving peace," it continued.
Ankara reiterated its call for third countries to consider the region's parameters and approach the conflicting parties with equal distance.
Last autumn, Azerbaijani troops recaptured the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in a lightning offensive that effectively ended a bloody three-decade standoff between the Caucasus neighbors over control of the mountainous region.
While both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev say a wider peace agreement is within their reach, lingering territorial disputes pose a constant threat of renewed war.
