New Force party prime ministerial candidate Hayk Marutyan said Armenia must establish strong relations with regional countries and major global powers to ensure security.

“In the field of security, our most important task is to establish the best possible relations with all our partners — first of all with regional countries, and of course also with larger players,” he said, according to Factor.am .

Marutyan said he considers the United States, the European Union and Russia among those major players.

“The major players are the United States, the European Union… Russia is also a major player, though it is also among our regional partners,” he stated.

According to Marutyan, his political force plans to deepen relations with the European Union.

“In all areas — justice, human rights, media freedoms, environmental protection — we significantly lag behind in standards. We need to bring our standards in line with European ones in order to even speak about membership in that family. Until then, that discussion remains one-sided,” he noted.

The election campaign, launched on May 8, will continue until June 5. June 6 will be observed as a day of silence, while elections are scheduled for June 7.