Shoigu calls the US-Armenia partnership treaty an election campaign tool

The signing of a strategic partnership agreement with the United States looks more like an element of an election campaign in Armenia, Sergey Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, told journalists on the sidelines of the International Security Forum.

As a reminder, Ararat Mirzoyan, Armenia’s foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, signed a strategic partnership charter in Yerevan on May 26.

“As for the strategic partnership treaty, let us imagine: a person flies in for one hour and in that time manages to sign a strategic partnership treaty. This looks more like an election campaign, or assistance to an election campaign. It is difficult to go into more serious detail, because, firstly, those details do not exist. Secondly, a strategic partnership treaty in and of itself must provide for specific areas of cooperation, and each of them must be thoroughly worked through. We have not seen that yet. As for the Russian base, it is alive, functioning, and operational. And we do not yet see any preconditions or threats to its presence there. It exists and operates for the security of Armenia,” Shoigu said.