Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is opening up new opportunities for its member states, including Armenia, as he attended a summit of the Russian-led trade bloc in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan on Wednesday.

“As I have said on many occasions, we are interested in Armenia’s maximally effective participation in the Eurasian Economic Union and will make every effort to improve cooperation mechanisms and attain four [economic] freedoms,” he said in his speech at the summit.

Speaking about the priorities of Armenia’s current rotating presidency in the EEU, Pashinian singled out the bloc’s planned trade deals with other countries, including India, Egypt and Israel. He said the Armenian parliament has ratified one such deal which was signed with Iran last year.

Pashinian described the summit as a success when he addressed reporters afterwards. “Today we discussed a broad range of issues and made decisions and reached agreements on practically all issues on the agenda,” he said.

The Armenian leader hailed the “viability” of the EEU when he visited the bloc’s headquarters in Moscow in January.

Pashinian criticized Armenia’s accession to the EEU and even called for its withdrawal from it when he was in opposition to the former Armenian government. However, immediately after he swept to power in May 2018 he made clear that he will not pull his country out of the EEU or the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Contrary to some media expectations, Pashinian did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Nur-Sultan summit. His spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that such a meeting had not been planned beforehand.

Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Armenian and Russian leaders will meet next week during an annual economic forum which will be held in Saint-Petersburg.

While in the Kazakh capital, Pashinian held separate meetings with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev. The latter retains sweeping authority as head of the oil-rich Central Asian state’s security council and leader of the ruling party.