Armenia can no longer count on Moscow in defense matters, says Pashinian

by Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Armenia can no longer count on Russia as its main defense partner because Moscow has repeatedly failed to fulfill its commitments, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Friday, who is considering establishing closer ties with the United States and France.

Armenia, a former Soviet republic bordering Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, has long relied on Russia, its main ally.

But Nikol Pashinian, elected in 2018 after a popular protest movement, called into question the foundations of the military partnership with Russia, attracting the wrath of Moscow.

“We need to understand with whom we can really maintain military-technical and Defense relations,” the Prime Minister said on Armenian Public Radio.

“Previously, 95 to 97% of our Defense relations were with the Russian Federation. Now, this can no longer be the case, for objective and subjective reasons,” he added.

Armenia must reflect on the nature of the relations it intends to establish in terms of security with the United States, France, India and Georgia, according to Nikol Pashinian, who also questions the affiliation of his country to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OSTC), a military alliance under Russian supervision.

Nikol Pashinian criticizes Russia in particular for its inertia in the face of the armed offensives of Azerbaijan, which regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh last year. This conflict caused a mass exodus of almost all of the 120,000 Armenians in the territory.

(French version Zhifan Liu, edited by Sophie Louet)