Armenia can no longer rely on Russia in military and defense issues, says PM Pashinyan

Armenia can no longer rely on Russia as its main defense and military partner, as Moscow has repeatedly failed Yerevan, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said on Feb. 2, according to Reuters.

“We need to understand who we can really maintain military-technical and defence relations with,” Pashinyan said, adding that 95-97% of defense relations used to be with Russia.

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“Now this cannot go on for both objective and subjective reasons,” said the official.

Armenia should instead think about what kind of security ties it should build with the United States, France, India, and Georgia.

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Self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko invited Pashinyan on Nov. 14 to a CSTO meeting in Minsk, but the latter refused to attend.

Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan stated that Armenia’s presence in the CSTO, which is actually led by Russia, creates “certain problems” for Armenia, so it is important for Yerevan to cooperate with Western partners in security issues.

The CSTO is a military alliance that includes Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Armenia is not Russia’s ally in the war against Ukraine, Pashinyan said in an interview with the Czech television channel CNN Prima News on May 31.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine