BOCHAROV RUCHEY (SOCHI), August 10 (RIA Novosti) - The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will not affect Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday.
"Armenia is joining the Customs Union as Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh has absolutely nothing to do with this issue, which has been repeatedly and publically announced by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan," Lavrov told journalists.
Earlier on Sunday, Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi hosted a trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Armenian and Azeri colleagues Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev. During the meeting the sides discussed recent tensions along the contact line of Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbaijan which led to casualties on the both sides.
Following the negotiations President Putin said that the two leaders had good will to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Eurasian Economic Union (EAU) Treaty on May 29, which is to enter into force on January 1. The creation of the Union paves the way for a new higher level of integration between the member countries of the Customs Union, which was formed by the three countries in 2010 and serves as the basis for the Eurasian Union.
The EAU would create a single economic market of 170 million people, potentially a new powerful center of economic development.
Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan announced last month that the country would sign a treaty on its accession to the EAU by the end of October.
