At the conclusion of their meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, signed an “allied cooperation” agreement that will serve as a blueprint for the advancement of relations between the two countries.
The agreement seems to have caught Yerevan off guard. After all, Putin invited Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Moscow for a state visit, which will mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Acting Parliament Speaker and a member of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party Hakob Arshakyan told reporters on Wednesday that Yerevan will have to study the document before making any comments. However, he said, sovereign states are allowed to conduct foreign policy.
“There’s no response yet. The text will be properly studied, and then, I think there’ll be a swift response,” Arshakyan said, touting the so-called strategic partnership between Moscow and Yerevan, Armenpress reported.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry touted the existing agreements between Armenia and Russia and said that the document signed by Putin and Aliyev on Tuesday cannot adversely affect relations with Moscow, “unless the parties develop them to the detriment of the Russian-Armenian alliance.”
Responding to an inquiry by Sputnik Armenia, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said that Yerevan and Moscow at various levels are consistently taking steps “to expand relations in both bilateral and multilateral dimensions for the benefit of the development of our countries in the conditions of guaranteed security.”
Hunanyan said that Yerevan hoped that the Russia-Azerbaijan agreement “will provide an additional opportunity to advance the implementation of the provisions of the three trilateral statements adopted by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, which may contribute to the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.”
News of the agreement gave opposition forces in Armenia’s parliament another opportunity to blame the Pashinyan regime, saying the agreement between Russia and Azerbaijan is a political setback due to the Pashinyan’s mishandling of relations with Moscow.
“This document highlights the completely failed foreign policy of the current Armenian authorities,” said Artur Khachatryan, a senior lawmaker from Armenia Alliance, according to Azatutuyun.am. “We have lost old friends but have not gained new ones.”
“They have thoroughly botched our relations with Russia … and this document also shows that something is not right in [Russian-Armenian] relations,” he told journalists.
In the newly-signed agreement, Russia and Azerbaijan pledge to follow “the intents and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), the Helsinki Final Act and other consensus documents of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the generally recognized principles and norms of international law.”
Mention is also made of the agreements signed between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9, 2020, which ended military actions of the aggressive war waged by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, as well as the documents signed on January 11, 2021 and November, 26, 2021, which call for the establishment of working groups to untangle transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan and begin the process of delimiting and demarcating borders of the two countries.
To this end, Russia and Azerbaijan pledged to cooperate in addressing the problems arising from the provisions of the aforementioned statements and “work closely at the regional and international levels to promote the establishment of long-term peace between the states of the region.”
The agreement also has a military cooperation component.
“The Parties will deepen interaction between the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan, including holding joint operational and combat training activities, as well as developing other areas of bilateral military cooperation,” the agreement stated. “The Parties, taking into account the high level of military-technical cooperation, interact on issues of provision of modern weapons and military equipment, as well as other areas of mutual interest.”
Russia and Azerbaijan also agreed to “resolutely suppress on their territories the activities of organizations and persons directed against the state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the other Party.”
