MEP Marina Kaljurand: Armenia’s membership in the Customs Union and CSTO are red lines for Europe

The EU’s Eastern Partnership policy gives partner countries the opportunity and right to decide how they want to see Armenia-EU cooperation, Chair of the Delegation for relations with the South Caucasus Marina Kaljurand told Alpha News.

“I think that cooperation should be closer in different fields such as economics, agriculture, education, and visa facilitation. These are areas in which, I am sure, cooperation can be much closer.

But there are red lines: the Customs Union and the CSTO. The country’s membership in those organizations will, at some stage, stop and complicate the development of relations in the future.

Now I see that cooperation can be much closer. Today, the EU’s relations with Armenia are closer than they were a year or several years ago. The process is underway, but this is a two-way path. Neither Armenia nor the EU can do this alone. There must be a collective discussion and decision on where and in what areas there can be closer cooperation and where there are opportunities to improve relations,” Kaljurand said.