“The next meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers will be held in Azerbaijan,” General Yuriy Baluyevsky, the head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, said to journalists, Trend reports referring to ITAR-TASS.
In reply to the question on over-armament in Armenia, Baluyevsky said that if to count the armaments remained in Armenia and Azerbaijan after the collapse of the USSR, then they would be approximately equal. “The soviet troops were stationed in the both countries during the USSR and almost all armaments remained there. Therefore, there is no sense to speak about the over-armaments of Armenia,” Baluyevsky underlined.
Baluyevsky noted that Armenia was a member of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization. “Armenia is the main ally of Russia in the region, but it will not provided with the armaments capable to solve strategic tasks,” he stressed.
The CIS Council of Defense Ministers held a meeting in Moscow on Thursday with participation of the Defense Ministers from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Russia, while Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were represented by Deputy Ministers. Georgia, Moldova and Turkmenistan did not dispatch their representatives to Moscow.