Tbilisi, Nov 25 (EFE).- Armenia and Saudi Arabia have established diplomatic relations, the foreign ministry the country in the Caucasus said on Saturday.

A foreign ministry statement said the signing of the corresponding protocol took place on Friday in Abu Dhabi by the ambassadors of the two countries to the United Arab Emirates.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that Armenia and Saudi Arabia were in touch with each other for the past few years.

“Our foreign ministers have met twice, phone calls have taken place, contacts have taken place during various multilateral working discussions,” Pashinyan told reporters before the government formally announced diplomatic ties with the kingdom.

“I think the process is advancing, and I hope that Armenia and Saudi Arabia will soon establish diplomatic relations, which would be a very important and significant event,” he said.

After several disagreements with Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his intention to diversify the country’s foreign relations.

Saudi Arabia supported Christian Armenia in its conflict with Muslim Azerbaijan in the war for control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, causing great discomfort in Azerbaijan’s main ally, Turkey.

Armenia, which gained independence in 1991 after the Soviet dissolution, maintains good relations with Iran, which opposed from the beginning the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

According to some experts, it was one of the triggers for the current war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which is backed by Tehran. EFE

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