By Ani Paitjan
Armenia and Russia are working on an agreement that will guarantee the absence of foreign soldiers in Armenia’s territory.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the news in a live interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda media, on December 17.
By foreign soldiers, Sergey Lavrov meant foreign soldiers except Russian troops.
Up to 5,000 Russian troops have been stationed in Armenia since the Soviet breakup. The Russian 102nd Military Base is headquartered in one of the largest cities of Armenia, Gyumri. The Russian military base was deployed on the territory in 1996 to protect the Armenia-Turkey border.
Lavrov’s comment was made in the context of American bio labs provided to several ex-Soviet states in recent years.
During the interview, Lavrov was asked about the presence of US-funded biological laboratories in Georgia, Armenia’s neighbouring country.
He replied saying that “they [laboratories] are not only in Georgia, but also in Armenia, in Kazakhstan, in Uzbekistan, in Ukraine. With Yerevan, by the way, we are concluding the process of preparing documents which would guarantee the absence of foreign soldiers and that all of this is done in a transparent way in terms of the lack of threats and risks.”
When talking about “threat” or “risks”, Lavrov refers to the Russian concern regarding American laboratories sprouting in the post-Soviet countries.
According to Washington D.C.-based reporter Emil Sanamyan, Russia is suspicious of all U.S. aid programs. “Since these labs were funded through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Russians officials look at them them as part of U.S. military cooperation, even though the labs are intended to help former Soviet republics to deal with the threat of biological terrorism,” Sanamyan noted.
In recent years, Armenia built or renovated laboratories with the help of the U.S. in various places, including in the cities of Gyumri, Martuni and in the Tavush region.
Last September, Armenia allowed Russian officials to inspect them after Moscow claimed that Washington seems to be running a clandestine biological weapons lab in neighboring Georgia.
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Following Lavrov’s statement, Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Anna Naghdalyan, insisted on the fact that those laboratories belong to Armenia.
“The labs belong to Armenia and have a civilian character,” she said. “As far as Armenia is concerned, there is no question of military presence there.”
The Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergey Kopyrkin also commented after Lavrov’s statement and said that the Russian and Armenian sides are now engaged in a “constructive dialogue” on the work of the labs.
“I don’t exclude that at some point we will reach an overall mutual understanding and agreement,” he told a news conference. “I can’t tell yet what form that agreement could take but any [Russian] ban or diktat is out of question.”
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