Working visit of President Serzh Sargsyan to the Russian Federation

President Serzh Sargsyan, who has made a working visit to the Russian Federation (RF), today took part in the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) which was held in Moscow.

Following the meeting between the Russian, Belarusian, Kazakhstani, Armenian, Kyrgyzstani, Tajikistani Presidents and the organization’s Secretary-General, the negotiations were opened up to allow the participation of the official delegations.

During the plenary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council a number of documents were concluded, including the statement of the CSTO heads of state.

In his speech, the President firstly thanked RF President Vladimir Putin for the invitation and for the traditionally warm reception held in the hospitable city of Moscow and secondly, the Russian partners for their active CSTO chairmanship in 2014 and for the major contribution to promoting collaboration between the CSTO member states.

Serzh Sargsyan noted that during the period falling between the CSTO sessions important work was carried out aimed at further promoting and improving political collaboration, deepening military and military-technical cooperation and responding to contemporary challenges and threats. In this regard, the Armenian President particularly emphasized the activities of the CSTO Secretariat, expressing his gratitude and wishing further success to the organization’s Secretary-General.

In his speech, Serzh Sargsyan introduced his colleagues with the situation in the South Caucasian region, talking particularly about the incidents happened on the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border and the contact line in the current year, underlining that Armenia holds that aggravation of tensions around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and militarization of our region are absolutely inadmissible.

“The documents we have concluded today are directed towards making collective and coordinated efforts to respond to arising challenges and present issues. I am confident that they will serve the interests of the CSTO development, ensuring the well-being of our countries and peoples in collectively guaranteed peaceful and secure conditions.

Furthermore, making decisions aimed at further strengthening the mechanism for coordination of foreign policy will raise the prestige of our organization.

I think that it would be appropriate to take steps toward establishing collective air forces to succeed in further promotion of cooperation between the CSTO member states. I would also like to stress the importance of measures aimed at boosting military and technical cooperation between our countries.

I am confident that the document package for information security will greatly stimulate collaboration between the relevant bodies of our states.

On January 1st of 2015, the Republic of Tajikistan is to take over the CSTO chairmanship. I would like to congratulate Tajikistani President Emomali Sharipovich Rahmon on this occasion,” said President Serzh Sargsyan, underscoring that cooperation in the CSTO format is one of Armenia’s main foreign policy priorities and Armenia is ready to actively cooperate with its partners in the interests of adhering to the provisions of the Collective Security Treaty. The President expressed the hope that it is the common position of the CSTO member states.

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There took place a session of the Eurasian Supreme Economic Council in the capital city of the Russian Federation Moscow, dedicated to the practical aspects of the activities to be carried out by the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and its bodies from the January 1st of 2015 onwards.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstani President Almazbek Atambayev and Viktor Khristenko, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, took part in the session which ended with signing of a number of documents. The participants also summed up the results during a joint press conference.

President Serzh Sargsyan thanked the EEU heads of state for supporting Armenia in joining the EEU, emphasizing the huge work carried out by relevant ministries, agencies and the Eurasian Economic Commission and wished everybody success in their further activities.

This evening, at the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel – the RA President’s residence in Moscow – President Serzh Sargsyan hosted a reception to mark the completion of the process of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty. Later on, President Serzh Sargsyan had an intimate dinner with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstani President Almazbek Atambayev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at his residence.