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Brexit is about the diversity of Europe, Armenian FM says

The Eastern Partnership is not a neighborhood, it’s the eastern flank of Europe, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said at the Eastern Partnership 10th anniversary Ministerial meeting on “A new political vision for EaP.”

That is the significance of Eastern Partnership, he said. “It’s not to the east of Europe, it’s to the east of the European Union, but the European Union is not the whole of Europe,” the Minister added.

“For all 28 years, since the beginning of Armenia’s independence, we declared that; we tripped many times, we have been through big problems, we have been through tragedies, but it was possible to build-up that kind of revolution,since there was a process, at the heart of which stood the European concept, the European shared values. Building gradually the generation, which was capable to come out and come up with the revolution,” Minister Mnatsakanyan said.  

Speaking about Brexit, the Foreign Minister said “it’s not the end of the European Union, it’s about the diversity of Europe.”

“This is what makes us a part of a bigger story. We all have individual agendas. Bilaterally, I think one of the greatest things of our relations with the European Union is the sense of wisdom that prevailed and brought us to the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. It’s different from Association Agreements, but it is basically everything Association minus DCFTA. So, yes we have different bilateral agendas, but the sense of belonging, the bigger picture of Europe is what Eastern Partnership makes up,” he stated.

Referring to the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership agreement with the EU, the minister said “it basically gives us that absolute opportunity to raise the level of our development according to the model we are striving at.”

Askedd what Armenia can offer in terms of cooperation, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said: “Armenia is very comfortable in its playground, the Armenian people have been contributing to the collective sense of the shared security, the shared development. This is what is important for all. Let alone wine, brandy, good creative education, good smart development, but those are specific, practical things.”

“What do we offer out of cooperation? Exactly what cooperation is for. That is the sense of a common house. And I do agree that in fact we have an excellent process on structured conversation, concerning the next 10 years. This has to be kept up. There are many good and interesting ideas, which make more tangible. Within this format it is a general talk, but I think within that structured conversation we have a plethora of interesting ideas about the way in which we find ways contributing mutually to what is good to all of us, the sense of common home. That is the biggest thing,” the Armenian Foreign Minister stated.

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