Armenian president promises to ratify military-technological cooperation accord with Russia this week
YEREVAN. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has characterized his recent negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin as "productive".
"We had productive talks. The state visit by the president of Russia was an important milestone in the modern history of Armenian-Russian relations. We agreed to continue our vigorous contacts on a wide range of topics," Sargsyan said.
This week, the Armenian Parliament will ratify a previously signed agreement to further promote military-technological cooperation with Russia, the president said.
This document "opens up vast opportunities for acquiring weapons and military hardware from Russia's defense enterprises at [Russian] domestic prices," he said.
"This is the only document, a bilateral one or in the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] format, that the Armenian side has not yet ratified," he said.
At their talks, Sargsyan and Putin also agreed to establish an interstate presidential council.
"We instructed our administrations to draw up the required draft documents that will regulate this council's work and submit them for signing during our next meeting," the Armenian leader said.
Sargsyan said that he had also informed the Russian president of the steps taken by Armenia as part of its accession to the Customs Union, which is currently comprised of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and the Common Economic Space.
"The president of Russia reaffirmed the Russian side's readiness to provide comprehensive support for this process," he said.
"We also reiterated the need to maintain the pace of the development of CSTO institutions and mechanisms, which are the main guarantors of security and peace in its region. We proclaimed our intention to further strengthen the potential of the [CSTO] Collective Rapid Reaction Force and take practical steps to bolster the mechanisms of their mobilization, deployment and effective operations," the Armenian president said.
The talks addressed possible solutions to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh as well.
"We confirmed our mutual commitment to finding an exclusively peaceful solution to it on the basis of generally recognized principles - a ban on using military force or threatening to use military force, equality, a nation's right to self-determination and territorial integrity," Sargsyan said.