The National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs held a joint session.
After the session, Ruben Rubinyan told journalists that they spoke about the situation in the South Caucasus, as well as the Artsakh conflict, Armenian-Russian mutual relations, and connections between the two countries’ parliaments. “The dynamics of Armenian-Russian relations have been evaluated positively, and the same goes for interparliamentary activities.”
Russian Federation Council senator Konstantin Kosachev said that Russia worked using the same format with the former members of parliament, and it is now being used with the new parliament that was formed as a result of events that took place a year and a half ago. This proves that there is a need for such mutual dialogue.
Kosachev emphasized that there is strong cooperation between the parliament speakers and deputies, and they always move a step forward after every discussion. Regarding the joint sessions of this committee, Kosachev remembered the issues that they spoke about several years ago and now. If they spoke about the EAEU in the past, it is now clear that the EAEU is one of the most successful programs.
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Regarding the Artsakh conflict, Kosachev said that the issue should not be resolved militarily, but politically. “The Russian side emphasized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement about how the resolution needs to be based on the positions of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Artsakh.”
Journalists spoke about how he mentioned that the conflict needs to have a peaceful resolution, yet the Armenian side has spoken frequently about how the arms race only destabilizes the situation. Kosachev was asked how he views the fact that CSTO states such as Russia and Belarus sell weapons to Azerbaijan. He responded, “Any conflict is destabilized by the disbalance caused when one of the countries either has real opportunities or has the illusion that they will win militarily. We are convinced that the main condition for the military balance in the region is making sure that the conflict is not in a military state. We are cooperating with Armenia and Azerbaijan militarily in different conditions. Armenia is one of our military allies and a member of the CSTO, but we do not have such relations with Azerbaijan. But rejecting cooperation will bring about dangerous and undesirable consequences on behalf of both Russia and Belarus.”
Kosachev said that there are other weapons suppliers and Azerbaijan, after taking into consideration the competition, will buy weapons from other suppliers. But the other option is that the military balance will be upheld, which is a strong guarantee that military operations will not start again.
Hripsime Jebejyan
