ArmInfo. Defense Minister of Armenia Arshak Karapetyan, who is on a working visit to the Russian Federation, and his Russian counterpart, General of the Army Sergey Shoigu, discussed a wide range of issues of the Armenian-Russian allied relations during the meeting. This is stated in the message of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia following the meeting of the heads of the defense departments of the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation.
The parties exchanged views on issues of ensuring regional and international security.
Congratulating the Armenian Defense Minister on his appointment to the post, Sergey Shoigu highly appreciated the work that has been recently carried out between the Defense Ministries of the two countries in the direction of developing bilateral cooperation and solving the problems existing in the region.
The General of the Army stressed that the Russian Federation will continue to make every effort to strengthen peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and a peaceful resolution of the situation in the border regions of Armenia.
Taking this opportunity, the Russian Defense Minister thanked for the fact that, despite the existing problems, Armenia continues to participate in the humanitarian mission in Syria.
In turn, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, at the request of the Russian Minister, presented the operational situation on the borders of the Republic of Armenia, stressing the importance of the mediation efforts of the Russian Federation in the peaceful resolution of the situation.
Arshak Karapetyan stressed that Armenia remains faithful to the establishment of a lasting peace in the region and the continuation of negotiations in this direction, but at the same time will not tolerate the occupation of its border areas and will take all the necessary steps to restore territorial integrity. Taking this opportunity, the Armenian Defense Minister thanked for the peacekeeping mission in Nagorno- Karabakh, noting that thanks to the efforts of the Russian peacekeepers, peaceful life in Nagorno-Karabakh has been restored, and uninterrupted communication with Armenia is ensured.
The Minister of Defense emphasized the inadmissibility of provocations and violations of the ceasefire regime carried out by the Azerbaijani side from time to time in the zone of responsibility of the peacekeepers, and pointed to the use of an attack drone recorded today as an example. Arshak Karapetyan also touched upon the intensive reforms in the defense sphere and thanked his colleague for all-round assistance in this direction.
The Minister stressed that today the Armenian-Russian military-political relations are at the stage of transition to an unprecedentedly high level. The defense ministers of the two countries have reached a number of important agreements on upcoming cooperation programs.