What did Pashinyan and Russia’s deputy chief of GS discuss?

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan yesterday received Deputy Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Col. Gen. Sergey Istrakov. Pashinyan praised the Armenian-Russian cooperation in the field of defense, security, and possible further effective cooperation. The parties discussed the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the agenda of cooperation between the two countries’ headquarters, as well as issues related to regional security.

Speaking today at parliament briefing, Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security issues, did not give a clear answer to the question what exactly was discussed. He only said: “It is very good that these meetings exist and are continuous. They are ongoing for the simple reason that we still have a lot to discuss with our strategic partner.”

Referring to the observation that the meeting is interesting to public because Russian President Putin had said that the maps with which demarcation and delimitation should be carried out are kept at the Russian General Staff, Kocharyan said: “You know that we have been in one common security system with 15 republics, we have had joint military maps, in the scope of those maps the corresponding processes related to the USSR Armed Forces have been carried out. Armenia also has one of those maps.”