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By Felix Light
(Reuters) - Armenia's president on Friday signed into law a bill that sets a legal foundation for the South Caucasus country to move towards joining the European Union as it moves to diversify its international ties beyond traditional partner Russia.
Armenian media reported that President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed the bill, which parliament approved last month.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has moved the country closer to the West since taking power in 2018, has repeatedly stressed that the bill does not represent an application to join the EU, but the start of a broader process of integration.
He has said that the public should not expect a rapid accession for the post-Soviet republic, and that it would in any case require approval by referendum.
The bill's approval comes ahead of a general election due for next year, as well as a possible referendum on constitutional changes demanded by Armenia's long-term rival Azerbaijan as part of a peace deal to end almost four decades of conflict between them.
Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan said they had agreed a draft peace treaty to end the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, but Baku has refused final approval until Yerevan amendments its constitution.
Though Armenia has developed warm relations with the EU, joining will not be easy.
The landlocked, mountainous country of 2.7 million people shares no border with the EU, and its bitter rival Azerbaijan is a major gas supplier to EU countries.
Three other countries that were once part of the Soviet Union - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - joined the bloc in 2004 after a years-long negotiating process requiring harmonisation with EU legislation, among other things.
Russia has repeatedly said that Yerevan will have to leave the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-led trading bloc, if it joins the EU.
Armenia's economy remains deeply dependent on Moscow, from which it imports much of its energy.
(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
