Armenia responds to talk over granting Azerbaijan EAEU observer status

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Foreign Minister spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan on Friday, December 17 commented on conversations about granting Azerbaijan observer status in the Eurasian Economic Union, maintaining that such decisions have to be based on a consensus among member states.

As of now, Hunanyan said, there is no application by any country to get such a status in the EAEU.

“The procedure of granting observer status in the Eurasian Economic Union is defined by Article 109th of the 2014, May 29 treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union," the spokesperson told Armenpress.

"Granting observer status to any country requires a consensus decision, before the adoption of which consultations are taking place within the Union, also aimed at finding out the economic appropriateness of that particular step."

Hunanyan's comments came after Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the development of a dialogue between Azerbaijan and the Eurasian Economic Union – of which Armenia is a member – would "contribute to the intensification of mutual trade". Earlier, the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, proposed granting Azerbaijan observer status in the EAEU