Samvel Karapetyan pledges strategic reset ahead of June 7 elections

Businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, the prime ministerial candidate of the Strong Armenia party running in the June 7 parliamentary elections, said he would seek to restore the country’s strategic autonomy and reposition it as a meaningful regional actor, while rebuilding ties with major global powers.

In remarks made during an interview series titled “Five Questions to Future Prime Minister Samvel Karapetyan” on Saturday, he argued that Armenia has lost agency in regional affairs and that key decisions affecting the country are increasingly shaped outside its borders, particularly in Azerbaijan.

“We will turn Armenia from a tool of Azerbaijan into a regional actor,” Karapetyan said, criticizing the current administration’s handling of foreign policy and national security.

He accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government of eroding relations with Armenia’s traditional partners and said repairing those ties would be a top priority. Karapetyan outlined a foreign policy approach focused on strengthening relations with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Armenia’s longstanding ally, Russia.

“Only through balanced and pragmatic engagement with major powers can we secure credible guarantees,” he said.

Karapetyan also addressed the regional landscape following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, claiming that Armenia’s leadership has been sidelined in dealings with Azerbaijan and Turkey. He said his government would seek to reassert a more proactive and sovereign role in negotiations.

“We intend to put an end to this dynamic,” he said.

Emphasizing domestic capacity, Karapetyan added that Armenia’s long-term security must be anchored in a capable military, national unity and diversified international partnerships.

“The guarantors of Armenia’s security should be its strong army, its resilient society and the backing of major powers with strategic interests in the region,” he said.