- 21 June, 2022
- Foreign Policy
The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has been in a quite intensive telephone connection with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin lately.
In general, by studying the data on the official telephone conversations of the head of state, one can get a certain idea of the developments, priorities and challenges of a particular period.
Previously, in these two publications (first, second) we have already addressed the official telephone conversations that took place during Nikol Pashinyan’s tenure. In this publication, we will continue to reveal the statistics of telephone conversations starting from the day of the last publication. Accordingly, below are the statistics of Nikol Pashinyan’s official telephone conversations from February 16, 2021 until the publication of this article.
General information
According to the official website statements of the RA Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan had 54 telephone conversations during the study period.
The RA Prime Minister had 24 of them with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Pashinyan’s next most frequent telephone interlocuters are French President Emanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken – 5 telephone conversations each.
Pashinyan also has frequent telephone conversations with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and recently with President օof the European Council Charles Michel (3 times each).
In addition, Pashinyan had two telephone conversations with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi. The Prime Minister had telephone conversations with the President of Kyrgyzstan, the successive presidents of Turkmenistan father and son Berdimuhamedovs, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Prime Minister of Russia, National Security Advisor of the United States Jake Sullivan, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Occasions
The mentioned period was full of quite difficult challenges for Armenia and various international upheavals.
First, in May last year, Azerbaijan invaded Armenia’s sovereign territory in Syunik and Gegharkunik regions. Wanting the support of its nominal allies, Armenia addressed the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The whole process, of course, was accompanied by active telephone discussions. In particular, in the context of the May tensions, the RA Prime Minister had telephone conversations with Putin (twice), Macron, Sullivan, Presidents of Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.
The next time the number of phone calls increases in January 2022 also in the context of the CSTO, this time in connection with the mass riots in Kazakhstan, due to which the country decided to address the CSTO. At that moment, the CSTO presiding country was Armenia, represented by Prime Minister Pashinyan. The latter had two telephone conversations with the leaders of Kazakhstan and Russia each in the context of the events in Kazakhstan and the actions of sending CSTO peacekeepers there. Besides, during the same period Pashinyan also had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of Georgia.
It is noteworthy that since the war between Russia and Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022, Putin and Pashinyan have had 7 telephone conversations. Besides, during the same period, the diplomatic processes between Armenia and Azerbaijan were intensified through European mediation represented by the President of the Council of Europe Charles Michel. After the trilateral meetings in this format, telephone conversations took place with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition, during the same period, in April-May 2022, Pashinyan had telephone conversations with Blinken and Charles Michel.
To conclude, it should be noted that the current statistics show some activity in Armenia’s foreign policy, and the main telephone interlocutor of the Armenian leader remains the President of Russia.
Vahe Ghukasyan
Union of Informed Citizens