Yerevan set to develop close military-technical cooperation with Moscow - Armenian foreign minister
MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - Armenia will continue to buy Russian weapons to maintain balance in the region, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant published on Wednesday.
"We have a strategic alliance with Russia and very close defense and military-technical cooperation. It is not a secret that we have been buying weapons from our strategic ally, in the first turn, and we will carry on the closest interaction with Russia in the military-technical field," Nalbandian said.
The newspaper asked the minister to comment on a recent statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said that "any arms supplies to Armenia and Azerbaijan were carried out with due account of preservation of the regional balance of forces." "We have to exert efforts in order to maintain balance in the region and to prevent a new escalation [of tensions]. Azerbaijan has enlarged its military spending manifold in recent years," the Armenian foreign minister said.
Being a major arms maker, Russia sells its weapons to various countries and this is only natural, he said.
"Yet we cannot be happy with Azerbaijan buying armaments and threatening practically daily to wage a new war. We do not like the fact that the armaments are being bought from our ally, which is putting a lot into interaction with Armenia, in particular, within the CSTO framework," Nalbandian said.