Archive:
April 4 (Reuters) - Armenia’s president on Friday signed into law a bill that sets a legal foundation for the South Caucasus country to move towards joining the European Union as it moves to diversify its international ties beyond traditional partner Russia.
(…)
Though Armenia has developed warm relations with the EU, joining will not be easy.
The landlocked, mountainous country of 2.7 million people shares no border with the EU, and its bitter rival Azerbaijan is a major gas supplier to EU countries.
Thanks. I can imagine Azerbeidzjan not wanting Armenia to join EU or NATO and why Turkey would be on the side of Azerbeidzjan. Also understand why Iran wouldn’t like this. But you say all four of the neighbouring countries are against, including Georgia?
By all four I meant Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Iran and Russia. Georgia probably has no agency(or power) in this question. I think Russia might be okay with EU membership with guarantees that it will be just EU, not NATO.
As for Turkiye it’s more than just siding with Azerbaijan, look at the map of the empire Erdogan is building. There’s a bit of gray land between Turkiye itself and other members, they really need green there. There’s also the fact that another NATO country in the region will make Turkey’s NATO membership less important.
Thanks for clarifying. Would you say that despite Georgia and Armenia being in a different position, they are together in the same boat so to speak?
No, Armenia needs to fight for it’s survival and right now they are fighting in the opposite direction.
Georgia will only have problems if they decide to join NATO.
They are similar in that they are much weaker than their neighbours both economically and militarily.
Economy is another aspect why this Armenian EU mania is ridiculous when more than 30% of both their imports and exports are with Russia(and growing) while the whole Europe is less than 10%.
Georgia is more diverse with their trade partners though they also export two times less per capita compared to Armenia(might be the result of their pro-West politics).
Thanks, learned a lot.