YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says Belarus’s weapons supply to Azerbaijan is a big problem in the Armenia-Belarus relations.

“We have good relations with Belarus, but I think we have great potential and we must realize it. Certainly, we have concerns over Belarus’s arms supplies to Azerbaijan, and it is a big problem for our relations. I have talked about this with President Lukashenko. And you know, the problem is getting deeper by the fact that Armenia and Belarus are military-political partners within the framework of CSTO. All citizens of Armenia have discontent over the fact that Belarus is selling weapons to Azerbaijan,” the Armenian Premier told euroradio.fm.

The reporter said he is aware that the Premier and other Armenian officials are trying to convince Belarus and personally Lukashenko to stop selling weapons to Azerbaijan. He asked the Armenian PM whether he believes it will work.

In response, Pashinyan said: I think it would be wrong to say that we are trying to convince. We are explaining our stance over this issue. We treat the interests of Belarus with respect and we are hopeful that Belarus will also display respect towards Armenia’s interests. Unfortunately, this type of activities [weapons sale to Azerbaijan] is unacceptable for us, and I would like to directly say this.”

Earlier in June 2018 it was revealed that Belarus has supplied Polonez multiple rocket launchers to Azerbaijan. The systems were displayed at an event of the Azeri defense ministry on June 11.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan