168 Hours: Why Armenia’s accession to EaEU is being protracted?

“This situation is advantageous for conducting negotiations with Azerbaijan – if Armenia enters the union, there will be fewer instruments for negotiations with Azerbaijan,” political scientist Aghasi Yenokyan told ‘168 Hours’ paper when speaking about the delay in signing the agreement on Armenia’s entry into the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU).

The political scientist indicated several possible reasons, noting that EaEU is not very much interested in Armenia so the Union members don’t hurry in this matter.

President of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan expressed an opinion that there are some obstacles to Armenia’s accession to EaEU, including Armenia’s membership in the World Trade Organization, the issue of Azerbaijan’s membership, and the Karabakh conflict.

According to the deputy director of Caucasus Institute, political scientist Sergei Minasyan, the main reason for the protraction is that there are serious disagreements among the 3 founding member states of EaEU and they use the issue of Armenia’s membership as a lever to exercise influence on each other.