Pashinyan Must Rush to Iran: "Zhamanak"

According to the newspaper "Zhamanak", the details of a large joint investment program by the European Union and the World Bank have been revealed, including the amount of funding intended for Armenia. The EU and the WB plan to allocate €13 billion to six countries participating in the Eastern Partnership EU program over the next 11 years, until 2030. Of this funding, €700 million is designated for Armenia, aimed at the construction of the "North-South Road Corridor"; notably, €450 million will go towards the critical and challenging section from Artashat to Agarak. Funding will also be directed towards upgrading the Meghri border crossing and modernizing inter-state roads between Armenia and Georgia. Speaking about the importance of these infrastructures is perhaps unnecessary, but at the same time, it's significant to note the infrastructural orientation.

It is possible to state that, in essence, this is about the European project for the modernization of infrastructures from Iran to Georgia via Armenia, or the joint EU-WB initiative, which indeed carries quite remarkable political, geopolitical, and economic implications.

This hints at a certain strategy in European politics, where a framework aimed at forming the Iran-Armenia-Georgia axis is at least discernible. And this, of course, is an important and significant direction for Armenia in the context of the current complex and contradictory global developments, providing an opportunity to be flexible and proactive in regional politics.

In this context, it is noteworthy that, following his appointment, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had an informal meeting with the Prime Minister of Georgia the very next day. There is no doubt that the intensification of communications in the Iranian direction has matured, and Pashinyan's forthcoming visit to Iran should be expedited in the agenda. The announcement of this joint initiative by the EU and the World Bank comes in particular light against the backdrop of the statement made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, noting that Moscow is preparing for another summit in the Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia trilateral format. Armenia should certainly not view this format as an opposing format; however, it is evident that Yerevan must also try to create regional parallel formats and involve both Iran and Russia in them.