We Need to Calculate New Steps, at Least When Working with Foreigners: Suren Sargsyan

International relations expert Suren Sargsyan wrote on his Facebook page: “Another example of the inadequacy of foreign policy is that in September 2019, the Government of Armenia made two decisions: to establish embassies in Israel and Ethiopia. The necessity of establishing an embassy in Ethiopia was, in essence, incomprehensible. There was no bilateral agenda; hence, it was justified that the embassy would open for working with African countries (as if there is an agenda with any African country).

The second justification was that they would actively work with the African Union based in Addis Ababa (one could assume that the agenda with the African Union was bursting with activity). What happened as a result?

1. The embassy was not opened, which means that there was either no real need for it, or they changed their minds.
2. They sent a bad message that they intended to open it to develop relations, but after the decision was made, they reconsidered or miscalculated their agenda.

In other words, they justified themselves, made decisions, issued messages, and then they decided that they did not need it, and the topic was closed. In both cases, we were perceived as very unseriously, both by Ethiopia and by individual states as well as by the African Union. Therefore, we need to calculate new steps to at least work with outsiders better.”