YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenia and Russia plan to work out a new agreement that will deepen the already close ties between their militaries and defense industries, top security officials from the two countries said in Yerevan on Thursday.
Armenian and Russian news agency reported that Artur Baghdasarian, secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council, and his visiting Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev, signed a relevant memorandum of understanding after two days of negotiations.
“The protocol envisages concrete positions, including on deepening cooperation in the military-technical field and establishing joint defense ventures in Armenia,” Baghdasarian was reported to tell a news conference.
He said the two sides agreed to form a joint working group that will draw up the new Russian-Armenian defense accord. Neither Baghdasarian nor Patrushev gave further details of the planned deal.
“During the meetings we talked about our military and military-technical cooperation,” Patrushev told President Serzh Sarkisian later in the day. He was quoted by Sarkisian’s press office as calling the talks “productive and useful.”
“I am glad that the Russian-Armenian allied relationship is dynamically developing,” Sarkisian said for his part.
Moscow and Yerevan signed a far-reaching defense agreement as recently as in August 2010. The deal extended the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia by 24 years, until 2044. It also committed the Russians to helping the Armenian military obtain “modern and compatible weaponry and (special) military hardware.”
The military alliance with Russia has long enabled Armenia to received Russian military equipment at discount prices or even free of charge. Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian spoke on Wednesday of new “long-range and precise weapons” delivered to his troops last year. But he did not elaborate.
Incidentally, Ohanian was also present at Patrushev’s meeting with the Armenian president.
Patrushev, who previously headed Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB), visited on Wednesday the Yerevan headquarters of Russian border troops guarding Armenia’s frontier with Iran and Turkey.
Baghdasarian said on Thursday that the two sides also agreed to bolster security at the Armenian-Iranian border.
I hope Armeno-Russo ties continue to deepen, especially in the military and economic fields.
Let Aliyev keep flapping his jaws. Azerbaijan isn’t going to attack NKR as long as the shadow of the Big Bear is looming in the background. This keeps the Turks on their side of the fence as well.
Isn’t it a pity that our beloved US (Obama and Hillary) so value their relationship with Erdogan that they do it at the risk of alienating free and democratic Armenia????
I Quote –
Isn’t it a pity that our beloved US (Obama and Hillary) so value their relationship with Erdogan that they do it at the risk of alienating free and democratic Armenia????
Comment – It is the US as such, which during a wery wery long time, has had a wrong policy regarding Bouth Armenia and Kurdistan.
The US will in the End loose all influence in the mideast and Caucasus.
God bless Armenias and Russias security cooperation.
Arn.Sweden.
bravo long live russian armenian christian Alliance! fu:. turkey n azergayjan
It’s a mutually beneficial alliance. The only way Azeribaijan can sell oil is through Georgia–Georgia is an unstable country for the pipeline.
I could see this coming, considering we have an unstable despot-to-be calling the shots in turkey and azerbaijan. Isn’t it ironic that we have great relations with a supposedly “rogue” nation to our south? Shows that Christians and Muslims can live side by side in peace.
Russia is finally realizing the strategic benefit of this relationship. Thank God for that. I suggest that Russia should close it’s early warning radar in Azerbajian and move it to Nagorno Karabagh or Armenia and put missle interceptors there.Secondly I suggest that Russia should greatly reduce it’s sales of arms to Turkey and to Azerbaijan. Whatever weapons that Russia has sold to the Azeris have been given to NATO