CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 4

ARMENIA IN THE REGIONAL CONTEXT
SAREN ABGARYAN
BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE AND THE INCREASING
RELEVANCE OF ARMENIA-CHINA BILATERAL
INVESTMENT TREATY
Received January 24, 2019, Accepted April 26, 2019
Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was announced by Chinese
President Xi in September 2013, with the goal of creating robust
continental and maritime trade and investment infrastructure connecting
Eastern Asia to Western Europe. Armenia is considered one of the
countries situated directly on the roadmap of BRI, which introduces an
opportunity to deepen Armenia-China investment relations, attracting
Chinese capital for infrastructure and greenfield investments in Armenia.
The Armenia-China bilateral investment treaty (BIT) signed in 1992 will
govern the private and public investment initiatives between Armenia and
China, and there is a growing need to re-examine the protection standards
contained in the BIT with the objective of renegotiating and updating the
treaty. Armenia-China BIT contains substantive and procedural protection
standards for foreign investors that are considerably outdated. In order to
facilitate and promote investment relations between Armenia and China,
the parties need to draw particular attention to this fundamental document
which lays out a framework of protection for investments between the
countries.
Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative; Armenia; China; Bilateral
Investment Treaty; Investment protection.
Introduction
Since its independence, Armenian foreign policy has been called
“multi-vectorism,” usually defined as complementary diplomacy, which
has dominated Armenia’s post-Soviet foreign policy. 1 Complementary
diplomacy assumes that Armenia has attempted to maintain a balance
between the international and regional powers that are actively involved
in the South Caucasus region (where Armenia is located). Thus, Armenia
has joined and participated both in pro-Russian initiatives and in pro-
1
Richard Giragosyan, “Towards a New Concept of Armenian National Security,”
Armenian International Policy Research, Working Paper No. 05/07 (Jan. 2005).
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