Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has traveled to Kyrgyzstan for a two-day working visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, including the SCO+ format meeting and related events.
During the visit, Pashinyan is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Armenian prime minister and Putin will address the possibility of holding a referendum in Armenia on the country’s future with the European Union or the Eurasian Economic Union.
“The president will, of course, use this meeting to present our arguments once again. But we cannot be more Armenian than the Armenians themselves. And, of course, it is the Armenians themselves who will decide their own fate. And that is precisely what we are proposing they do — hold a referendum,” Peskov said when asked whether Pashinyan’s meeting with Putin could halt Armenia’s process of distancing itself from Russia.
The spokesman also said that leaders of EAEU member states had likewise proposed holding a referendum in Armenia, adopting a corresponding statement at a recent summit in Astana, RIA Novosti reports.
Peskov also described every contact between Putin and Pashinyan as important.
The SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan will take place from August 31 to September 1.
