Moscow to continue military-technical co-op with Baku, despite Yerevan’s discontent, says expert

By  Trend

At the Valdai Forum in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed the intentions of their countries not only to continue, but also to strengthen military-technical cooperation, famous Russian TV anchor, political expert Yevgeny Mikhailov told Trend.

He was commenting on the recent meeting of the two leaders on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.

He said that cooperation in the military-technical sphere between Azerbaijan and Russia will continue in the future, despite the discontent of Armenia.

“Despite that the Armenian leadership represented by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked the Russian side to declare embargo on the supply of new weapons to Baku, this call was ignored by the Russian side,” the expert noted. “They didn’t hear it. Accordingly, this clearly confirmed the fact that Azerbaijan is a friend and partner of Russia for many years. Azerbaijan is stable politically and economically, which is now rare in our rapidly changing world. The supply of new weapons is first of all politics, and then money, which means that Russia is more confident in Azerbaijan than in those who are against the country.”

The expert suggested that if Baku enters into joint military-political blocs with Moscow and other countries, this fact will shock the “ancient and proud neighbors” in the region.

“Yerevan understands that the closer relations of Moscow with Baku are, the faster it will be necessary to return the occupied territories,” he said. “Time works against the politicians of Armenia, who are driving their country and people into a dead end of hopelessness and poverty.”

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.