Տhe establishment of peace in the international community, but Armenia and Azerbaijan are the primary beneficiaries of peace, Priem Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with British journalists.
He attached importance to the fact that in the last five months the two countries have reached two major agreements.
“This is the expression of the fact that in the end it is the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan that are the beneficiaries of peace,” PM Pashinyan said.
At the same time, the Prime Minister noted that “we are worried about a number of statements coming from Azerbaijan regarding the reforms and modernization of the Armenian army.”
“Why? Because if we look at the ratio of the military budgets of Azerbaijan and Armenia, there is a significant imbalance here, but even in the conditions of this imbalance, Azerbaijan reacts very aggressively to the reforms of the armed forces of Armenia and the acquisition of weapons and equipment, although we all understand that these acquisitions are exclusively for defense purposes,” he said.
“I have said on several occasions that no country can challenge another country’s right to have a combat-ready military. I think that having a combat-ready army is also important for peace, for creating the right balance of power. And this is also the reason why, when Azerbaijan raises these issues, we also do not leave those statements unanswered,” Nikol Pashinyan said. He noted that the purchase of weapons by Armenia is not more than 15-20 percent of the weapons purchased by Azerbaijan, both financially and in terms of volume, and is mainly of a defensive nature and of defensive significance.
He said the Armenian side has offered Azerbaijan to create a bilateral arms control mechanism to be prevent arms race in the region.
“We have proposed and continue to propose that a mirror withdrawal of troops take place from the border recorded in the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. We have proposed to sign a non-aggression agreement even before reaching an agreement on a peace treaty, because it is a very simple agreement , especially now that we have put the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration at the heart of our delimitation and demarcation process,” PM Pashinyan said.
