Relations between Armenia and Russia in the 2000s: from strategic partnership to pragmatic cooperation

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2011
Karaman, İrfan
This thesis seeks to analyze the nature of relations between Armenia and Russia in the 2000s. Contrary to the dominant view that relations between these two countries could be labeled as strategic partnership, this thesis argues that these relations could be characterized as pragmatic cooperation. In fact, both countries having close relations in all fields and refraining from pursuing policies that might harm the other’s interests in the 1990s, gave priority to their own national interests in the diplomatic and economic fields in the 2000s, while maintaining close cooperation in the security field. In the 2000s, Russia started to pursue a pragmatic foreign policy by improving its relations with Azerbaijan that has rich oil and natural gas reserves. Likewise, Armenia has also started to pursue a balanced foreign policy by enhancing its cooperation with the Western countries and international organizations in diplomatic and security fields in the same period. Moreover, Armenia also deepened its cooperation with Iran in the energy sector to decrease its energy dependence on Russia. Consequently, both Armenia and Russia have started to pursue pragmatic policies in diplomatic and economic fields to maximize their own national interests while maintaining close cooperation in security field. Therefore, bilateral relations between these two countries started to take more pragmatic character than a strategic partnership.

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Citation Formats
İ. Karaman, “Relations between Armenia and Russia in the 2000s: from strategic partnership to pragmatic cooperation,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2011.