Armenian Ambassador: the issue of selling American weapons was not  raised during Bolton`s talks in Yerevan

ArmInfo.The visit of the US President National Security Adviser John Bolton was of a regional nature; he visited not only Armenia, but Moscow, Azerbaijan, and  Georgia as well, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan said  this on the air of ''Ekho of Moscow'', commenting on Bolton's visit  to Armenia.

"Actually, our relations with the United States were developing, I  cannot say that very intensively, but they did. And we have quite a  serious layer of mutual relations, economic cooperation. Moreover,  the United States is the co-chair of the Minsk Group on the  settlement of the Karabakh conflict along with Russia and France,  therefore, there is the general context of regional policy and  security policy that worries us, and it was these issues that were  discussed. The issues of Armenia's participation in the humanitarian  mission in Syria, which we stated recently, were also discussed. In  regional aspect the issues of Karabakh conflict settlement were also  discussed ", the Armenian diplomat stated.

Touching upon the possible acquisition of arms by Armenia from the  United States, Toghanyan stated that during the meeting, negotiations  with Bolton the question of the acquisition of weapons by the  Armenian side was not discussed, and this issue was not the topic of  negotiations. "Bolton, during his interview, spoke about the  possibility of removing by the US Congress those obstacles that  prohibit the sale of weapons. But again, no such negotiations were  conducted. The Prime Minister then said that if we received an offer,  we would discuss. He said that we would hypothetically discuss ",  said the Ambassador of Armenia.

According to him, such a proposal has not been made yet. The Armenian  diplomat also pointed out that after all the arms market is a normal  market, but here there are some military-technical realities. "That  is, we are very closely and actively cooperating on this issue with  Russia. Our armed forces, officers are adapted to Russian weapons, to  services, and so on. And we have the appropriate conditions, that is,  we have the opportunity to buy Russian weapons at Russian prices.  Just in the words of the Prime Minister it was said that if such a  proposal is made, we will discuss it. That is, it is necessary to  weigh how interesting it is economically, "the Ambassador stressed.

He also added that the loan agreement with Russia exists, recalling  that in previous years Armenia had taken advantage of an export loan  of $ 200 million, then a second line of 100 million was opened.