ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /TASS/. Moscow regrets Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to skip the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit in Minsk later this month, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"It is certainly regrettable. However, Armenia will be present [at the summit] via an online video conference. Armenia is a member of the EAEU, and a very important member," Peskov said at a news briefing in response to a question about Russian reaction to Pashinyan’s decision against travelling to Belarus for the summit.
"This is a country that, by the way, derives major economic gains from being an EAEU member," he continued. "Membership in the EAEU contributes notably to the growth of the Armenian economy each year."
Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov stated on Thursday that President Vladimir Putin’s next foreign visit would be to the Belarusian capital of Minsk, where he will take part in the EAEU summit.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a state visit to Azerbaijan on May 15-17, during which he visited Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular, he said that Minsk and Baku "equally understand the world and where it is going," and offered his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev assistance in Karabakh’s postwar reconstruction.
