Yerevan seeks to advance relations with Moscow - Armenian PM

YEREVAN. Oct 12 (Interfax) - Armenia does not want its relations with Russia to worsen, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

"Severing or worsening relations with Russia was never among our goals, is not today and will never be. On the contrary, we want to develop our relations with Russia," Pashinyan said in an interview with Radio France International. The audio recording of the interview has been published on Pashinyan's social media pages.

"No matter what, relations with Russia cannot be the same as in the past," he said, adding that "what has changed is that there used to be a conflict with Azerbaijan, and now there is peace."

One of Armenia's goals is membership in the European Union, Pashinyan said.

"Why do I say one of the goals or one of the options? It's because the EU is yet to make a decision on enlargement policy. A country's wish alone to become an EU member is not enough for solving this issue. Our strategic goal is the creation of alternatives for Armenia. We lived under the conditions where Armenia did not have large alternatives in the external space. The goal is to create alternatives to enable the people of Armenia to decide on whether the country stays in the [Eurasian Economic Union] EAEU, becomes an EU member or does not become a member of any of these organizations. In any case, we are reforming Armenia in accordance with EU standards," Pashinyan said.