“We haven't seen each other in a long time,” Putin told Pashinian at the start of the talks held on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in the Chinese city of Tianjian.
“Many issues have accumulated: bilateral, regional and international ones,” he said. “I hope that our meeting today, as it usually happens when we meet, will be useful and informative.”
For his part, Pashinian praised the “very active dialogue between our brotherly countries.” Neither side reported afterwards details of their meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said only that it was “very good.” The two leaders previously met in a one-on-one format in Moscow last October amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Yerevan.
Their latest conversation came less than a month after Pashinian pledged to let the United States administer a transit corridor for Azerbaijan, which would pass through Armenia’s strategic Syunik region, during White House talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Although the deal is seen by analysts as another blow to Russian presence in Armenia, Russia’s public reaction to it has been cautious so far. Moscow has said that it must not be at odds with Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc, and the presence of Russian border guards along the Armenian-Iranian border.
The transit corridor would be adjacent to that border. The issue is believed to have been high on the agenda of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk’s August 20 visit to Yerevan.
Earlier this year, Overchuk repeatedly warned of severe economic consequences of Armenia’s declared desire to eventually join the European Union. He complained in June that the Armenian government has already made decisions “contradicting Eurasian Economic Union norms.”
Pashinian reportedly told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in July that he still has no plans to pull Armenia out of the EEU. Still, he again stated last week that Yerevan will eventually have to choose between the EU and the trade bloc that guarantees Armenian exporters’ vital tariff-free access to the Russian market.
Pashinian already suspended Armenia’s membership in another Russian-led bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in early 2024. He has indicated that his country will leave the CSTO altogether.
The five other CSTO member states, including Russia, are among the 10 Eurasian countries making up the SCO. Yerevan announced in July plans to join the Chinese-led grouping.