THE EURASIAN UNION, EUROPEAN UNION, AND ARMENIAN COMPLEMENTARISM
Keywords:
Armenia, complementary foreign policy, the EurAsEC, the Eurasian Union, the European Union.Abstract
Today, when democracy is in crisis, the developing countries are finding the stronger global and regional integration processes much more important than before. This is largely true of the post-Soviet countries which, having entered a new development stage, are coping with the globalization challenges through structural transformations. The Republic of Armenia is one of them.
Throughout the 25 years of its independence, Armenia has been consistently moving toward a free democratic society irrespective of numerous problems in all spheres, including its foreign policy sphere. Its national security problems are resolved by its military-strategic relations with Russia, which has formulated the idea of the EurAsEC as a common economic expanse to counterbalance the EU. Moscow is putting pressure on all the CIS countries (Armenia among them) in an effort to draw them into this new structure which, in the near future, is expected to develop into the Eurasian Union.
European integration is a foreign policy priority in Armenia. The European political establishment, in turn, is demonstrating a far from adequate approach, to say the least, toward Armenia’s possible EurAsEC membership. The Europeans make no secret of their intention to put pressure on Armenia, not only to prevent its membership in the Eurasian Union, but also to weaken Russia’s influence in the Southern Caucasus and fortify their own positions in the south of the post-Soviet space and the Middle East.
The far from simple choice between the EurAsEC and the EU is proving to be a durability test in complementarism.
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References
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