Kazakhstan Proposes to Change the EEU Meeting from Yerevan to Moscow

ASTANA, March 20, 2015 (Xinhua) — Russian President Putin (R), his Belarussian counterpart Lukashenko (L) and Kazakhstan counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev attend a meeting in Astana, March 20, 2015. (Xinhua/Miao Zhuang)

The prime-ministerial summit of Eurasian Economic Union will be held in Moscow instead of Yerevan, on April 13.

According to RFERL report, Kazakhstan offered to change the place for the meeting. Karim Masimov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan declared not to attend the meeting in Yerevan and proposed another place. His proposal was accepted by Russia.

Some analysts argue that Kazakhstan uses its position to support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the change of place is an acceptable action for Kazakhstan and some argue that the current conflict in the Caucasus and security concerns shared as the main reason for the change.

Hrant Bagratyan, the former Prime Minister of Armenia, criticized the initiative by Kazakhstan and called the Armenian officials not to attend the summit. He said, “I think that the Eurasian Economic Union members should have come to Armenia to support us instead of moving the session to Moscow. Tigran Sargsyan, the chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission, who was nominated for this position by Armenia, should boycott this session, as a representative of our country. We should say our resolute ‘No’ to make everybody respect us,” in the report by Arka News Agency.

Armenian officials had declared not to attend the meeting in Astana in 2015, claiming Kazakhstan didn’t invite them.

Eurasian Economic Union members include Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. Reportedly, there have been disagreements between Kazakhstan and Armenia since the membership process of Armenia started.