Armenian and Russian flags in Gyumri

YEREVAN (Arka)—The Armenian government approved on Thursday a set of priority measures that are required for the country’s accession to the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Speaking at a cabinet session, deputy economy minister Karine Minasyan said a negotiating team was set up at the order of the Armenian and Russian presidents to handle the preparatory work as part of Armenia’s process to join the union.

Among other things, the program calls for a comparison of the Customs Union’s documents with Armenia’s legal framework and its international agreements.

Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian announced on September 3, after talks with Putin in Moscow, that his country would join the Customs Union. Before that, Armenia was expected to initial an Association Agreement with the European Union in late November.

Following this, the Armenian government offered to finalize a watered-down version of the Association Agreement, but the EU’s enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele dismissed this idea during a visit to Armenia, saying the Association Agreement was one indivisible agreement.

“They [the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area] are two parts of one treaty that have been negotiated with our Armenian colleagues. There are clear links between those two parts; you can’t separate just one at the expense of the other,” Fuele said at a news conference in Yerevan.