Pashinyan Sets Timeline for Visa Liberalization with EU

The unification of the Armenian people around the concept of Real Armenia gives us the basis to be confident that we will no longer enter a deadlock. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during his speech while presenting the government's program for 2026-2031 at the first session of the ninth convocation of the National Assembly.

According to him, a balanced and equidistant foreign policy has become one of the key tools that allowed for the stabilization of Armenia's external environment, and the government will not only continue this approach but will also adopt it as its foreign policy strategy, with the key issue being to avoid imbalances in international relations or to have tools to balance them.

“Regionalization plays a key role in balanced and equidistant foreign policy, aiming to make it possible for Armenia to live in its own environment without external assistance. In this regard, the further development of relations with Georgia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan is of significant importance,” the Prime Minister stressed.

He noted that relations with the U.S. are in an upward trajectory and that in recent years Armenia has established strategic relationships with Georgia, France, China, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Croatia.

“The strategic agenda of our partnership with the EU is being implemented at a visible pace. The law adopted by the National Assembly last year to initiate Armenia’s membership process in the European Union has given new momentum to this process. The 8th summit of the European Political Community took place in May 2026 in Yerevan, followed by the first Armenia-EU summit,” Pashinyan highlighted, emphasizing that Armenia is currently the only country actively negotiating visa liberalization with the EU.

“We aim to achieve visa liberalization with the EU by 2029,” said Nikol Pashinyan, noting that it is no secret that the rapprochement in our relations with the EU has raised certain concerns in Russia. “In my opinion, the development of our relations with the EU has actually given rise to this, and the fundamental reason for those concerns in Russia is the transformation that has begun in Armenian-Russian relations. Moreover, this transformation is not a whim of someone but is fundamentally a natural process. One thing is the Armenia-Russia relationship in conditions of conflict and quite another is the conditions when peace is established between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” stated the Prime Minister.

Regarding relations with Turkey, he added that there is no tension at all. “The outlook is positive,” the Prime Minister declared.