09:27, 5 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he joined Saudi Crown Prince, Deputy PM and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman at the opening ceremony of the 5th Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh was a historic and unprecedented event as no diplomatic relations between the two countries exist and it was the first trip of an Armenian head of state, or any other Armenian government official to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
During the forum, Sarkissian and the Saudi Crown Prince discussed the “necessity of developing, and the future of, the relations between the two countries. It was mentioned that the rich historical interactions between the two peoples are a good foundation for building future-oriented interstate relations,” the presidency said in a news release.
However, now experts argue that a single visit isn’t enough for the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the most influential actors in the Middle East and the key countries of the Arab World.
The Head of the Chair of Arabic Studies at the Yerevan State University Hayk Kocharyan says the president’s visit and the communication he formed with Riyadh needs to be capitalized and placed on institutional foundations.
“In order for this to be capitalized and become a serious, promising and developing direction, first of all a coordinated work must be implemented by various governmental institutions. The president’s visit was the first step, and indeed a very important event took place. Time will show to what extent the Armenian diplomacy and various governmental institutions will use this event for developing relations with Saudi Arabia. But in any case this is desirable, because this is one of the most important directions in the Middle East for us, and having good relations with Saudi Arabia, one of the most serious actors in the Middle East, is very important,” Kocharyan said.
The most important factor relating to the absence of the Armenian-Saudi relations is directly linked with Armenian national interests and particularly the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Back in early 1990s, when the Nagorno Karabakh conflict began, Saudi Arabia took a pro-Azerbaijani position. When the First Nagorno Karabakh War ended, the Saudi government announced that it won’t establish diplomatic ties with Armenia “as long as the Azerbaijani territorial integrity isn’t restored”. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Turkey were manipulating the factor of Islam in international platforms, namely during the conferences of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, trying to mislead the international community that the conflict is religious and to exert pressure on Armenia.
While Armenia, not having diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia didn’t have practical levers to anyhow impact Riyadh’s stance. And this very fact further emphasizes the importance and significance of establishing diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia.
Experts are still vague over whether or not the Saudi government has changed its position after the 2020 Artsakh war, but in any case the importance of establishing diplomatic relations hasn’t gotten less from it.
Experts stress that the president’s visit, albeit highly significant, isn’t enough for this, because constitutionally the Armenian president has a mostly ceremonial role.
Anyhow, President Sarkissian – with his reputation and stature – is creating good pre-requisites for the establishment or development of relations with any given country, in this case with Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that this is done by governmental bodies of the executive branch.
“And the forum where the president was invited to participate is interesting by itself, and was an important event for Saudi Arabia, because it was being held for the fifth time and Saudi Arabia sees that kind of events in its strategy with the purpose of changing its economic image and diversifying its economy. Armenia’s high-level presence at such a forum is important from this perspective too. That’s why such opportunities must be used.”
Interview by Aram Sargsyan
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan