Russia says military-technical cooperation with Armenia remains on agenda

Russia announced Wednesday that the military-technical cooperation with Armenia continues to be on the bilateral agenda.

“I can say that the topic of military-technical cooperation exists, it is on the agenda of our relationship,” Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin told 24News. “Clearly the current situation has some impact on the processes, but we have accumulated a very big volume in this sector. The Russian side has political will to maintain what we have. The issues are discussed, some are decided, some are still under discussion. But we have the will to resolve the issues,” he said.

He said that the Russian military presence in Armenia ensures the country’s security, and not “the promises of Western powers”. He was referring to the presence of the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri and Russian border guards. 

“As far as I know no one has given Armenia any [Western] security guarantee that would be comparable with the Russian-Armenian relations. I haven’t seen any document or statement. The main components of our cooperation in the security sector, the military-political alliance are maintained. The Russian base [102nd military base] continues to be here, the presence of our border guards hasn’t changed in terms of principle, and the Armenian leadership assesses this quite positively,” the ambassador said.