ArmInfo.Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan is confident that the cooperation with NATO is not an obstacle for Armenian-russian relations. This was stated by him in the interview to lenta.ru.
Particularly the Minister reminded, that Armenia's cooperation with NATO began in 1994, when Yerevan joined the Partnership for Peace Project. He mentioned, that Armenian soldiers participate in peace missions, which gave to Armenian military forces an option to obtain very important skills in peace operations implementation. Beside that, according to the Minister, Armenian side shares the knowledge obtained with its CSTO allies.
"During all these years, when our relations with NATO have been put on a planned basis, the cooperation with Russian only expanded, which is reflected, for instance, in the extension of Russian military base location term Agreement, increase of the Joint Military Group role, common Air Defense System creation. The Karabakh negotiations process is one of the points where the interests of CSTO and NATO, Russia, EU and USA are the same.
Answering the question about what Armenian military complex could offer to Russia, Sargsyan mentioned a number of aspects: "The most prospective sectors are optical-electronic and systems of investigation and fire coordination, mobile radiolocation and digital radio sets, information security systems and others. Beside that, research centers and military industrial complex of Armenia develop and supply to army different kinds of drones, which do not stay back of foreign analogues," the Minister stated. Sargsyan mentioned, that Armenian side expands and improves the cooperation with Russia at bilateral level and in the frameworks of CSTO and CIS. "We continue conversations on security issues with a number of CIS countries, as well as with the USA, China and EU countries. In the framework of the Partnership for Peace Project Armenia cooperates also with NATO, participates in peace operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon," he accentuated. He added also that within the framework of sensible defense Armenia implements the innovative ideas to improve the efficiency of staffing and financial resources utilization.