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YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Armenia-United States military cooperation has a history of many years and isn’t a new thing in principle, and taking into account Defense Minister Suren Papikyan’s recent visit to France, it is obvious that Yerevan seeks to obtain guarantees from its Western partners regarding both its security system and deepening the cooperation and finding alternative options in the defense area in order to withstand existing challenges, according to military-political analyst Davit Harutyunov.
Harutyunov spoke to ARMENPRESS on the cooperation between Armenia and the United States in the defense area.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, First Deputy Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Edward Asryan visited Washington D.C., on July 17-18 and participated in the conference dedicated to the U.S. National Guard State Partnership Program's 30th Anniversary.
Throughout the event, meetings were held with the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Daniel R. Hokanson, the Director for Strategy, Plans and Policy, United States European Command, Major General Daniel Lasica, and the Adjutant General, Commander of Kansas National Guard, Brigadier General Michael T. Venerdi.
During the meetings, the current status and prospects for the development of the Armenia-Kansas partnership within the framework of the program and a number of issues related to bilateral cooperation with the United States were discussed.
“It’s clear what Armenia seeks, because our security system is experiencing a certain crisis in terms of external guarantees due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and Russia’s preoccupation with it. Nonetheless, cooperation with the United States is still limited due to objective reasons. In general, it’s a difficult process, and thus far no guarantees that the West could provide are visible. This is more about a diversified cooperation and not a fundamental change of Armenia’s security system,” Harutyunov said.
According to the analyst, the cooperation basically relates to the modification of the security system, encompassing the working experience of the past 20-30 years. Despite the West’s increasing weight in the recent period, Armenia still doesn’t have the necessary resources for any fundamental changes, Harutyunov said.
“The United States clearly understands that Armenia is closely integrated with the CSTO and has more comprehensive ties with Russia in the security field, therefore changing something at once would be simply impossible. But on the other hand this is a secondary circumstance, because some of the other CSTO members are rather effectively cooperating with the United States itself, and being a member of the CSTO isn’t a disruptive factor at all. Nevertheless, South Caucasus isn’t a priority region for the United States, and Washington doesn’t view South Caucasian countries to be a constituent part of its security system,” he added.
Some believe that closer integration with the West could open a new front against Russia in our region, Harutyunov noted.
Furthermore, Harutyunov said that integration would require huge resources which are now scarce because of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and noted other factors such as East Asia and China. Moreover, closer cooperation with Armenia could cause Turkey’s discontent because Turkey is in a higher position than Armenia for the United States.
“In our case, changing the security system and the military arsenal would definitely imply rather serious resources and funds. In a best case scenario, we could speak about buying limited, individual elements of Western production and integrating them into our system, just like in the case of Indian-made armaments. Theoretically, the American side could provide us with a variety of armaments, but that equipment is very expensive. We don’t have the necessary resources for acquiring the kind of systems they have. And after all, the American military industrial complex is first of all supporting its allies,” Harutyunov said.
The analyst explained that the Armenian-American military cooperation is generally developing within the framework of the programs as part of NATO, as well as in the context of structural reforms in the Armenian Ministry of Defense, trainings of specialists, partnership between the two militaries, as well as involvement in peacekeeping missions.
Interview by Manvel Margaryan