Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Armenia is not considered as a participant in building a bright future for the Eurasian continent.

The head of Armenia was not invited to the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held in Beijing with participation of as many as 37 world leaders, 360 foreign ministers, and representatives of 90 international organizations.

The organizer himself determines the participation format of a country, depending on the specific topic of discussion, according to the forum’s rules. In fact, Armenia is not of interest to China in the context of the main topic of this forum, which sounds like a common bright future.

Meanwhile, Armenia's non-participation in the next large-scale project worries the Armenian public. Political and expert circles want to understand why the country was ignored in this forum.

"Unfortunately, Armenia and China have not yet managed to establish serious and effective cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the head of the China-Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Studies Foundation, Assistant Prime Minister of Armenia, Mher Sahakyan, said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency.

Ex-Prime Minister and economist Hrant Bagratyan believe that the Armenian authorities made a big mistake when the country did not join the co-founders club of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which finances Silk Road projects. The Bank has $100 billion of capital and $1 trillion credit resource.

He noted that Russians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz conduct large-scale construction work at the Bank’s expense. Bagratyan expressed surprise that Armenia can’t get involved at least in road programs.

The Armenian economist did not name the main reason why Armenia once again found itself in a loser position. Four years ago in this country, Armenian circles were confident that previous President Sargsyan, visiting Beijing, was able to achieve a place for Yerevan on the new Silk Road, along with Chinese investments. Armenian experts seriously discussed how the Armenian transit is more profitable for China than Azerbaijani one.

During that time Azerbaijan built Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, opened the largest commercial sea port in the Caspian, reconstructed the road network by the new Silk Road standards being created. The connection of the Azerbaijani and Iranian railways is also nearing to completion. So, contrary to the Armenian analysts’ opinion, Azerbaijan turned out to be much more attractive as a transit country.

Remarkable, that immediately after the operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor in early 2018, Deputy Chairman of the Armenian National Congress Party Aram Manukyan said that Armenia occupies almost zero place on the international level. He noted that all regional and international routes pass by Armenia.

Manukyan stressed that Armenia is a de jure in the Caucasus, but the country does not work in any of the projects going through the Caucasus.

Manukyan was actually the first of Armenian politicians, except for Levon ter-Petrosyan, to recognize the direct Armenian dependence of this deplorable state on its occupation of Azerbaijani territories. Deputy chairman understands that the end of the war is the only way of development and integration of Armenia.

If Beijing had political interests in the region, it is possible that Armenia would have some place in the project. But there is no Chinese political interest in the region, and Armenia is not an object of economic interest for China. In its present position, Armenia will become just a bottomless pit, where Chinese investments will be irretrievably leaking.

Yerevan finds itself not only in political but also in economical deadlock and therefore no one invests money in this country. While the country does not give up claims to Azerbaijani lands, Armenia will remain doomed to further isolation from all significant international projects.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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