The two men met on the sidelines of an international conference on climate change held in the Russian Altai region of Siberia. Their press offices released unusually short readouts of the talks.
The Russian statement said Pashinian and Mishustin discussed “Russian-Armenian relations in trade-economic, scientific-technological and cultural-humanitarian spheres.” The Armenian government reported, for its part, that they reviewed the current state of bilateral ties and “partnership within the EEU framework.”
“On the whole, Armenia -- and today it was also discussed -- is intent on continuing to work in the Eurasian Economic Union,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk told reporters after the talks described by him as “very useful.”
In April this year, Pashinian’s government pushed through the parliament a bill declaring the “start of a process of Armenia's accession to the European Union.” Moscow warned that the South Caucasus nation risks losing its tariff-free access to Russia’s vast market and having to pay much more for Russian natural gas and foodstuffs.
Pashinian and other Armenian officials stressed the law does not amount to an EU membership bid. They also said that an exit from the EEU is not on Yerevan’s agenda.
Still, Pashinian said last month that Armenia will eventually have to choose between the EU and the Russian-led bloc. He did not specify when that could happen.
Russia accounted for over 41 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade last year, compared with the EU’s 7.7 percent share.
Pashinian indicated last week that his country is likely to leave another Russian-led alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the near future. He suspended its membership in the CSTO in early 2024.