EU, Washington Pledge Funds As Armenia Turns Away From Moscow

(RFE/RL) — The European Union and the United States have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to Armenia as Yerevan looks westward amid failing relations with its traditional ally, Russia.

After talks between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Brussels on April 5, von der Leyen said the European Union will allocate 270 million euros ($293 million) for the South Caucasus state over the next four years.

“We will make investments to strengthen Armenia’s economy and society, making them more robust and stable in the face of shocks,” she stressed.

Blinken said that the United States and the EU “reaffirm transatlantic support for democratic, prosperous future for the Armenian people, and for more integrated and more peaceful South Caucasus region.”

“We are committed to further growing our support for Armenia’s democratic and economic resilience with investments in food security, digital infrastructure, diversification of energy, diversification of trade partners,” Blinken said, adding that Washinton plans “over $65 million assistance” for Armenia.

The trilateral meeting took place as the former Soviet republic distances itself from Russia .

Last month, Pashinian said in an interview with the France-24 TV that his country had frozen its membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The CSTO has been at the heart of Armenia’s turn away from Moscow. The Pashinian government has long criticized the CSTO for its “failure to respond to the security challenges” facing Armenia.

Armenian officials have accused Russian peacekeepers deployed in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in September 2023 that ended with Baku regaining control over the breakaway region that for three decades had been under ethnic Armenian control.

Moscow has rejected the accusation, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene and charging that Pashinian had effectively paved the way for the collapse of separatist rule in the region by previously acknowledging Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over it.

Pashinian declined to attend the CSTO summit in Minsk in November and said in a televised Q&A session then that any decision about Yerevan’s continued membership in the group — which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — would be based on Armenia’s “own state interests.”