India, April 3 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned Armenia, which aspires to join the European Union, that it won't be able to be part of both the EU and a Moscow-led economic alliance.

Armenia, which signed a US-brokered agreement last year ending decades of hostilities with Azerbaijan, has increasingly sought to forge closer ties with the US and the EU. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared an intention to join the EU, and his Government has suspended the country's participation in a Moscow-dominated security pact, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

Speaking at the start of talks with Pashinyan in Moscow, Putin said Russia is "absolutely calm" about Armenia's efforts to forge closer ties wi...