Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan has stated today that “Russian presence in the region and deepening of Armenian-Russian military- political cooperation are the key deterrents in maintaining regional stability and security.”

Davit Tonoyan has made this remark while addressing the meeting of the Defense Ministers of CIS, CSTO and SCO member states in Moscow.

“Armenia has always advocated equal application of the international law and the right for free expression as well as reasonable globalization and architecture of global security based on abstention from the policy of “speaking from a position of strength” and maximalist approaches, hate speech and warlike language.

To my deep regret, I have to point out that the military-political situation in the South Caucasus has high potential for conflict. Recently, the region has experienced escalation of tensions, which we assess as the consequence of the expanding ambitions of certain countries. The military and political developments dynamically unfolding in our region can be described as a clash of geopolitical interests, in which the key factor is the lack of a common vision of security as well as the lack of mechanisms for risk reduction. Regional conflicts have no military solution and Armenia finds unacceptable both the warlike language and the attempts to involve new states in the given conflicts with further aggravation of the situation in the region,” said Tonoyan.

“Armenia’s area of strategic interests includes not only the Caucasus but also the entire CSTO zone as well as the Middle East and the East Mediterranean. Thus, Armenia is interested in maintaining peace and stability in the mentioned regions,” underlined Davit Tonoyan.