YEREVAN, January 20. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has called to deepen ties with Russia, he said speaking at the parliament on Wednesday.
"Our cooperation with the Russian Federation in the security field is certainly at the most intensive and highest level. The issue on our agenda is to deepen the military and political alliance with the Russian Federation," he indicated.
Earlier, both the prime minister and other high-ranking Armenian officials had repeatedly reiterated Russia’s key role in the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement.
The trilateral statement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on November 9, 2020 stopped fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been raging in the region since September 27. Under the deal, Azerbaijan and Armenia maintained the positions that they had held, some of the districts were handed over to Baku, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the contact line and to the Lachin corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. This ceasefire agreement sparked protests among the opposition that labeled the statement as a capitulation act and demanded that Pashinyan should immediately resign.
After Russian peacemakers had been deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation stabilized, as just one ceasefire violation has been reported since. Tens of thousands of Karabakh residents, who fled their homes over fighting, have come back assisted by the peacekeeping contingent.