Presidents Ilham Aliyev (left) of Azerbaijan and Vladimir Putin of Russia sign an "allied cooperation" agreement in the Kremlin on Feb. 22
Moscow on Friday claimed that an “allied cooperation” agreement signed by the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan earlier this week will not impede relations between Russia and Armenia.
“Moscow will comply with all its obligations toward Yerevan, which is a long-standing and close ally of Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a briefing.
“We are convinced that the signing of the aforementioned declaration with Baku will strengthen trilateral cooperation between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia,” Zakharova added.
She also added that taking into consideration the changed geopolitical realities in the region, Russia continuously updates the bilateral treaty base with Armenia, which currently contains about 200 documents.
Zakharova insisted that the Moscow-Baku agreement will, in fact, strengthen regional cooperation.
“As for the Karabakh settlement and the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the declaration itself on allied cooperation with Azerbaijan contains a passage that the parties will mutually facilitate efforts to implement the provisions of the agreements of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia of November 9, 2020 as well as January 11 and November 26, 2021,” Zakharova said, pointing to one of its clauses that she said “stipulates that the sides cooperate in solving the tasks resulting from previously reached agreements and closely cooperate in establishing a long-term peace between the states of the region.”
At the conclusion of their meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, signed an “allied cooperation” agreement that will serve as a blueprint for the advancement of relations between the two countries.
In addition to the clause about the post-2020 war agreements, the Moscow-Baku agreement also has military cooperation stipulations.
“The Parties will deepen interaction between the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan, including holding joint operational and combat training activities, as well as developing other areas of bilateral military cooperation,” the agreement stated. “The Parties, taking into account the high level of military-technical cooperation, interact on issues of provision of modern weapons and military equipment, as well as other areas of mutual interest.”