Many formal and informal meetings between heads of state, high-level officials as well as civil society took place as part of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly between September 22-30. This is an event which stands out with the speeches delivered by the heads of states, foreign ministers and other top officials. It is crucial for the international political arena as it showcases each country’s political, strategic, economic achievements and priorities, foreign policy goals and in general how the country positions itself in the world, hence making it one of the top events for the international community to observe and draw conclusions from.
Armenia is not an exception.
As a common practice, each year Armenia’s head of state presents to the world the country’s achievements and strategic goals and sends its message from the UN podium. However, this time the Armenian prime minister travelled to UN later, missing this opportunity for high-level engagements, such as the official reception by US President Trump and his wife. Instead, PM Nikol Pashinyan attended the conference “World Atomic Week” in Moscow discussing small modular reactors with Russian counterparts, although not long ago a memorandum of understanding was signed with the US to cooperate in this area.
Pashinyan visited the United States of America on September 26-27. This year the key takeaway from Pashinyan’s UN speech was about peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia’s PM used the word “peace” in his speech 26 times, emphasizing “I am pleased to report to the entire international community that peace has been established between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.” Specifically, he mentioned the first bilateral international document between the two countries that has undergone full ratification. Most importantly these efforts will ensure an unobstructed link between mainland Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through Armenian territory. According to him, Armenia will also benefit from international and domestic transport links. Pashinyan once again credited US President Trump for playing a key role in achieving peace, mentioning that Armenia and Azerbaijan have jointly agreed to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. However, Armenia’s PM was not happy with the Azerbaijani president’s claims of Armenia’s “capitulation,” saying that it’s “inconsistent with the reality of peaceful agreements and undermines positive progress.” Pashinyan was also against the use of the term so-called “Zangezur Corridor,” which in Armenian reality “is perceived as a territorial claim from Armenia and is associated with conflict discourse.” According to Pashinyan, this term was mentioned several times by the Azerbaijani president even after the adoption of the Washington Declaration, although such a term has never been included in the documents agreed upon in Washington.
It is worth stressing that Pashinyan missed the official reception held in New York on behalf of President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in connection with the UN General Assembly session whereas Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva attended the meeting. By not attending, Armenia’s prime minister missed out on the chance of taking part in discussions related to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Aliyev was the only participant in such a discussion with Trump, expressing Azerbaijan’s side of the issue and deepening his personal relations with the US president.
In their interaction Trump even called Aliyev “my friend.” He asked Aliyev how the peace was “working out? Good? No shooting? No nothing?” Aliyev in response said, “Everything is finished on August 8.” He once again thanked Trump, indicating that he “did a miracle.” It is apparent that Aliyev is working on establishing not only strong formal ties but also a personal rapport with Donald Trump and is succeeding in that.
