“We have no plans, programs or concerns regarding the presence of the Russian military base,” Pashinian said during an official visit to Poland.
Russia and Armenia remain “close partners,” he told foreign diplomats and pundits at a meeting in Warsaw.
Pashinian’s government froze Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) before formally pledging last year to strive for its eventual accession to the European Union. As recently as on January 28, Pashinian again declared that the CSTO posed an “existential threat” to his country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized that statement.
Yerevan has been careful not to demand the closure of the military base in Armenia or the withdrawal of Russian border guards deployed along its borders with Turkey and Iran. It only made sure in 2024 that the border guards leave the sole Armenian-Iranian border crossing and Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport. Pashinian noted this fact in his comments made in the Polish capital.
“We are grateful to Russia for its presence there,” he said. “As a newly independent state in the early 1990s, we did not have the capacity to provide that type of service, but we can do that now and are developing our capabilities.”
The Armenian government has also made clear that despite its continuing tilt to the West it does not yet intend to pull out of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led trade bloc that gives Armenian exporters tariff-free access to Russia’s vast market.
Despite lingering tensions between Moscow and Yerevan, Russia remains Armenia’s by far the most important commercial partner. According to Armenian government data, it accounted for 35.8 percent of Armenia’s overall foreign trade last year, followed by China (12.3 percent) and the European Union (11.7 percent).