By 70 to four, the Armenian Parliament has adopted amendments to the RA Law on International Agreements in their second reading.
The new law provides for the termination and suspension of signing and ratification of international agreements in Armenia at any stage before the process is completed. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) (ARFD) did not take part in the voting as the amendments proposed by it were not incorporated in the draft.
The ARF proposed that the RA Parliament be entitled to terminate or suspend the procedure of adopting international agreements. The ARF also proposed an amendment on introducing reservations into international agreements.
The ARF also drafted another relevant bill and submitted it to the Government. Speaking in Parliament, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated that the ARF-submitted proposals were not considered as the Government is now considering the ARF-submitted bill. According to the Minister, the bill is a most complicated document, and the Government is not in a hurry to give its opinion. As regards the ARF’s proposal for introduction of reservations into international agreements, Nalbandian stressed that reservations are normally introduced into multilateral, rather than bilateral, agreements.
The Heritage parliamentary faction voted against the bill as well. “We do not, as a rule, vote for incomplete documents,” said Stepan Safaryan, Press Secretary of the Heritage faction.
Experts account for the hasty adoption of the law by the RA Parliament by RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s recent statement that Armenia was to introduce relevant amendments into the order of signing, ratifying or invalidating international agreements in case Armenia decides to withdraw from the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.
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