Armenia, Russia have allied relations - Armenian foreign minister

Armenia and Russia have allied relations, Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan said on Wednesday.


"The Armenian-Russian relations have really allied nature. They have a solid legal base," he said in an interview with the Public Agenda program on Armenia's Public Television. "It is clear to all, including to Azerbaijan."


The minister said he is aware of "rather critical moods in Armenian society concerning Azerbaijan's buying Russian weapons." He refuted allegations that Russia's cooperation with Azerbaijan is to the prejudice to its relations with Armenia. He reminded that Russia has a military base in Armenia. Apart from that, Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military political alliance, it has dozens of treaties and agreements with Russia in the defense and military industrial spheres.


Asked to comment on the ambiguous reaction of a number of countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to the recent escalation of tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, Nalbandyan recommended not to dramatize the situation. In his words, even in the European Union countries may have different positions not always liked by others.


"The Eurasian Economic Union is only an emerging structure. It is an economic union whose member countries have their own moods and may express their opinions," he said. "Moreover, the Eurasian Economic Union has no structure that coordinates positions in the foreign policy sphere, like the one in the Collective Security Treaty Organization."


"But such things do happen even in the Collective Security Treaty Organization," the Armenian top diplomat reminded. "That is why from summit to summit, from one meeting of foreign ministers to another, we have been raising this issue. And not only we but also the Secretariat and other CSTO members." He said "more coordinated and more productive efforts" are needed to strengthen cooperation between the member countries. "Yerevan will soon host a meeting of the CSTO foreign ministers and we will raise this issue again," Naldanbyan said.


"The EAEU is an economic union where member countries take consensus decisions whereas more coordinated approaches to foreign policy issues are needed in the CSTO," the minister said. "As for Karabakh, CSTO summits and foreign minister meetings have yielded numerous statements and decisions that clearly expressed the position of the settlement of the problem. And should CSTO member countries stumble somewhere, we would remind that we have common approaches adopted by a consensus at the presidential level."


The situation along the line of engagement of the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2. Following fierce armed clashes at the contact line, the parties to the conflict accused each other of violating truce.


On April 5, Russia mediated a meeting between Colonel-General Nadzhmeddin Sadykov, the chief of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces General Staff, and Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, that took place in Moscow. The sides agreed to cease the hostilities on the line disengaging the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia announced a ceasefire on the contact line as of 12:00 (11:00 Moscow time) the same day.


The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s.


In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994.

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