PISSED OFF AT RUSSIA
Beglium - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba meet in Brussels, December 11, 2023.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met in Brussels on Monday, continuing diplomatic contacts between their counties that were denounced by Russia this fall.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two ministers discussed “bilateral cooperation on issues of mutual interest” and “regional issues” relating to the South Caucasus. Kuleba tweeted, for his part, that they talked about the “advancement of Ukraine-Armenia dialogue.”
That dialogue appears to have begun in early September amid a further worsening of Armenia’s relations with Russia, its longtime ally. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s wife visited Kyiv at the time to attend the annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen held there. Anna Hakobian also delivered Armenia’s first humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
The Russian Foreign Ministry listed Hakobian’s trip among “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan against Moscow when it summoned the Armenian ambassador a few days later. The strong criticism did not stop Pashinian from talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during an EU summit in Spain on October 5.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met in Brussels on Monday, continuing diplomatic contacts between their counties that were denounced by Russia this fall.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two ministers discussed “bilateral cooperation on issues of mutual interest” and “regional issues” relating to the South Caucasus. Kuleba tweeted, for his part, that they talked about the “advancement of Ukraine-Armenia dialogue.”
That dialogue appears to have begun in early September amid a further worsening of Armenia’s relations with Russia, its longtime ally. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s wife visited Kyiv at the time to attend the annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen held there. Anna Hakobian also delivered Armenia’s first humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
The Russian Foreign Ministry listed Hakobian’s trip among “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan against Moscow when it summoned the Armenian ambassador a few days later. The strong criticism did not stop Pashinian from talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during an EU summit in Spain on October 5.
Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet in Granada, October 5, 2023.
Three weeks later, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, participated in a multilateral peace forum in Malta initiated by Ukraine. Grigorian also met with the powerful chief of’Zelenskiy’s staff, Andriy Yermak, during what Moscow described as a “blatantly anti-Russian event.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, called Grigorian’s trip to Malta a “demonstrative anti-Russian gesture of official Yerevan” and linked it with Pashinian’s conversation with Zelenskiy. She accused Pashinian’s government of “persistently destroying our allied relations.”
The Armenian leaders’ attendance of those events contrasts with their boycott of recent months’ meetings of top officials of ex-Soviet states making up the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Pashinian embarked on the apparent rapprochement with Ukraie despite its stong support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In particular, Kyiv was quick to condemn the September 9 election by Karabakh lawmakers of the region’s new president, saying that it is “contrary to the rules and principles of international law.” The election came ten days before the Azerbaijani military offensive that forced Karabakh’s practically entire population to flee to Armenia.
“I reiterated Ukraine’s support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” Kuleba wrote after meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov earlier on Monday.
Three weeks later, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, participated in a multilateral peace forum in Malta initiated by Ukraine. Grigorian also met with the powerful chief of’Zelenskiy’s staff, Andriy Yermak, during what Moscow described as a “blatantly anti-Russian event.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, called Grigorian’s trip to Malta a “demonstrative anti-Russian gesture of official Yerevan” and linked it with Pashinian’s conversation with Zelenskiy. She accused Pashinian’s government of “persistently destroying our allied relations.”
The Armenian leaders’ attendance of those events contrasts with their boycott of recent months’ meetings of top officials of ex-Soviet states making up the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Pashinian embarked on the apparent rapprochement with Ukraie despite its stong support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In particular, Kyiv was quick to condemn the September 9 election by Karabakh lawmakers of the region’s new president, saying that it is “contrary to the rules and principles of international law.” The election came ten days before the Azerbaijani military offensive that forced Karabakh’s practically entire population to flee to Armenia.
“I reiterated Ukraine’s support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” Kuleba wrote after meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov earlier on Monday.
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