No discussions on stationing foreign military bases in Armenian territory: Vigen Sargsyan

Currently there are no discussions on opening military bases of other countries in the territory of Armenia, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan told Interfax in an interview. “We don’t have such a request from the Russian side also.

The 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri has a very important significance for us. We have interesting contacts with our Russian partners in the direction of making it more modern and expanding the capabilities.

There are specific topics, directions, where new formats of cooperation might arise as result of our joint work. Namely, I have already mentioned the cooperation in the air defense field. There are topics, which we must very actively discuss together,” Sargsyan said.

The Minister emphasized that Gyumri is a very important platform for the Armenian-Russian partnership. “The 102nd military base is stationed here, families of numerous servicemen live there and traditionally industrial capacities have always been developed in this city. Of course, the destiny of this city became a bit complicated as result of the devastating 1988 earthquake, when a significant part of the city’s infrastructure was damaged, however now the city is actively restoring its positions, including in the industrial sector.

Currently there are military-industrial complex enterprises there. We are discussing the issue of expanding the possibilities in this direction and making Gyumri a platform for cooperation in the military-industrial field between Armenia and Russia.”