Why Did the Prime Minister Only Attend the Dinner and Not the Conference? - Mnatsakanyan

Criticism has been voiced in Armenia regarding why Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not participate in the high-level conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership and only attended the official dinner. Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan addressed this issue when asked if there was any basis for such criticism.

“You know that the Prime Minister had his own agenda. I do not think it is worthwhile to build a theory around why this happened, because there were different leaders at different levels. I remained, continued, and participated. We participated together in all the events that were taking place today. By the way, I would like to reiterate that it was a very practical and very good visit by the Prime Minister, because yesterday’s discussions and interactions were very practical and very good; many interactions occurred at both bilateral and multilateral levels, with numerous exchanges of assessments and ideas. This continued today. We are very satisfied from a practical standpoint. As for why this or that happened, I would like to reiterate that this was a very important event in terms of marking the anniversary, which was very well organized.

We participated, but the Prime Minister also had another visit that was equally important and needed to be carried out. And it takes time to travel from Brussels to Beijing, so we were able to accommodate and all agree with the host side. This is all normal. In other words, there is no need to construct assumptions about why this way or that way.”