Armenia eyes closer military cooperation with Greece

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday that Armenia expects its military cooperation with Greece will become "more effective."

Pashinyan said the two countries have "a long story of defense cooperation" and Armenia's rapprochement with the EU opens new opportunities.

"Cooperation between the two countries is successfully developing in various spheres. We have quite a long history of cooperation in the field of defense, and I am sure that this cooperation will become more effective," he said at a meeting with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in Athens.

The Armenian prime minister thanked Greece for taking part in the EU monitoring mission that is deployed on the border with Azerbaijan.

"Greece is one of our most important partners in the European Union,” he said. “We are grateful for Greece's participation in the EU mission on the border of Armenia with Azerbaijan. I am sure that during this visit we will have the opportunity to discuss the agenda of bilateral cooperation, Armenia-EU relations, regional and international issues.”

Asked about the upcoming meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Berlin on Feb. 28 - 29, Pashinyan said he hopes for progress on a peace treaty with Baku.

"You know that the next meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia is expected in the near future. I hope that progress will be made as a result of this meeting," he said.

Armenia occupied the internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory of Karabakh for more than 30 years. In the autumn of 2020, Azerbaijan started liberating its territories and completed the process last September.

But tensions on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border reignited Feb. 12, when Baku said one of its soldiers was injured from shots fired by Armenian forces toward the country's southwestern Zangilan district

The following day, Azerbaijan said it carried out a "revenge operation" in response, destroying the combat post which fired at its soldiers. Armenia said four of its servicemen were killed.