“The Eurasian Economic Union is a purely economic structure and has nothing to do with security. Therefore, no issue of border security can be discussed,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters today. He added that the issue will be raised at the forthcoming CSTO summit on September 15.

Does Armenia expect concrete actions from the CSTO? Shavarsh Kocharyan said that we “first and foremost rely upon ourselves on issue of our security and defense.”

“We should understand that if a country relies upon others, the outcome may be sad,” he said. He added, however, that “the role of any country is important to us, and this first of all refers to countries we have agreements with.”

The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict proceeds within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. He said progress is absent because Azerbaijan puts the emphasis on issues favorable to itself. “There will be no progress unless Azerbaijan changes its behavior, while speaking about unilateral concessions is simply strange.”

Referring to reports on the expected visit of Crimean leader Sergey Aksenev to Armenia, Shavarsh Kocharyan declared that “the Armenian Foreign Ministry has not sent any official invitation to the leadership of Crimea, but added that “any person with a Russian passport is free to visit Armenia.”