Armenian acting Defense Minister meets with his Russian counterpart in Moscow
The acting Minister of Defense of Armenia military Vagharshak Harutyunyan held a working meeting with Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Ria Novosty news agency reported.
"We are strengthening our military cooperation both in the bilateral format and within the framework of international structures, first of all, the CSTO," Sergei Shoigu said, opening the working meeting.The Russian Defence Minister congratulated Vagharshak Harutyunyan and the entire Armenian people on the state holiday — Republic Day.
"I want to congratulate you on the national holiday, which is celebrated today by the whole Republic, and on this day you found it possible to come to Moscow, this shows that relations between our countries are still at a very high level, and we continue to develop and deepen our strategic partnership," the head of the Russian military department said, as quoted by the source.
According to Sergei Shoigu, agreements on the creation of a joint group of troops of the armed forces of Russia and Armenia, as well as a joint regional air defence system in the Caucasus region of collective security are being successfully implemented. The Russian Defence Minister stressed that "the functioning of the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia is an indicator of the high level of bilateral cooperation, which we consider as an important factor in ensuring regional security."
According to the source, Russian minister also suggested to discuss regional security issues. "We will discuss regional security issues related to the work of the peacekeeping forces in Nagorno — Karabakh, but also, of course, all the acute problems that have arisen at the moment," Sergei Shoigu said.
In turn, Vagharshak Harutyunyan said: "Today we will discuss all our issues of cooperation, which, in my opinion, is developing very successfully."