Today, during the weekly briefing, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, answered the question about the cooperation between Armenia and Russia within the framework of the CSTO.
“In connection with the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia, I want to emphasize that our countries remain allies. The interests of the Armenian people are inseparable from the neighborly relations with Russia, and we hope that the leadership of Armenia will take this into account and make the right choice against the background of the current geopolitical transformations.
The Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia have a reliable bilateral legal framework in terms of security and military-technical cooperation. Let me give examples of what we are talking about. The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in 1997, the Russian military base in the territory of Armenia in 1995, the interstate agreements on the establishment of a unified regional air defense system in 2015, the agreement on the joint combat duty of air defense in 2000, and two countries have obligations to each other, including the protection of sovereignty, territorial integrity and security. Yerevan is also under CSTO collective guarantees in case of possible aggression.
In order to develop the strengthening of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in 2016, Russia and Armenia signed an agreement on the joint grouping of troops, which is designed to ensure the security of the parties in the Caucasus region of the Collective Security Treaty, and in this sense, the return to active cooperation within the framework of the CSTO is primarily in the interests of Armenia itself.
Yerevan has at its disposal wide organizational opportunities, potential based on many years of experience. We are convinced that, unlike the false observation missions of the European Union, the CSTO is capable of playing a stabilizing role in the South Caucasus,” Zakharova said.
